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(Added background to paragraph 2, comments to paragraph 3)
Jan 5 (Reuters) – White House Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Jared Bernstein said on Friday that conflicts in the Middle East and disruption to shipping in the Red Sea have so far had a “limited” impact. U.S. officials said they would continue to do so. To monitor the situation.
International shipping companies are avoiding the Red Sea due to an increase in attacks on ships in the region during the conflict between Israel and Hamas. Diversions to longer, less-traveled routes could create logistics congestion similar to the one that caused price increases and inflation during the coronavirus pandemic.
“We will continue to communicate with our partners to determine the impact on prices and the impact on our supply chain,” Bernstein said on a call with reporters after the U.S. Department of Labor’s monthly jobs report. “What we have seen so far is that the impact of the ongoing conflict is having a fairly limited impact on energy prices.”
Bernstein said the December labor market report shows that U.S. job growth and wage growth are strong and consistent with the economy continuing to recover from the pandemic-induced recession.
Regarding inflation, he said, “We are turning the corner, but our work is not done yet.” (Reporting by Ann Safir; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)
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