Yahoo Finance Citigroup CEO: The consumer is in 'very good shape'
Worried about the consumer? Don’t be.
”The consumer, I think, is in very good shape,” Citigroup CEO Michael Corbat says.
Corbat told Yahoo Finance at the Women’s Forum of New York Annual “Breakfast of Corporate Champions” that with unemployment at or near historic lows, spending and housing stable, the consumer is “relatively healthy.”
The drag Corbat is monitoring is uncertainty.
“Uncertainty has probably caused business to be more cautious,” he added. “So as a CEO of a company today, where's trade going? What's the economy doing? What's going to happen with tariffs? What's going to be the outcome of Brexit?”
These are questions Corbat thinks need to be answered for business leaders.
“The economy is not necessarily about Federal Reserve policy and where interest rates are, but how can we clear up some of this uncertainty and get business back on their front foot with some confidence to be out there investing not for next quarter or even next year, but for the next five or 10 years?”
Citigroup is the best performing big bank stock this year in the Financial Select Sector ETF (XLF). It’s up over 40% year to date.
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Jen Rogers is an anchor for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter @JenSaidIt.
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