US Treasury head says omicron may cause issues for global economy

ANKARA

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Thursday that the latest coronavirus variant omicron may cause significant issues for the global economy.

"There's a lot of uncertainty ... We're still evaluating that," Yellen said at a virtual conference.

She said omicron could worsen global supply chain bottlenecks but also lower global demand, which would, in turn, ease some of the inflationary pressures around the world.

Yellen added that the new variant "hopefully" would not significantly slow economic growth.

Similar to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's comments Tuesday, Yellen said she is also ready to remove the word "transitory" in describing inflation because it "has not been an apt description of what [the world] is dealing with."