Kudlow on economic recovery: ‘On the whole the picture is very positive’

White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow doubled down on his claim that the U.S. economy is recovering, despite coronavirus surges across the country. 

“In some places job declines, job increases have been affected, I don’t deny it, but it’s being made up by people calling back employees. So the joblessness rate is going to fall,” Kudlow said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Kudlow acknowledged that rising coronavirus cases in some states may moderate the level of recovery, but still painted a positive picture about recovery across the country. 

“You can argue about the speed of [recovery,] I get that, and I don’t deny that some of these hotspots states are going to moderate that recovery, but on the whole the picture is very positive,” he said. “And I still think the V-shaped recovery is in place.”

White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow paints a positive picture of the US economy despite a slow recovery and rising coronavirus cases in major states: “The odds favor a big increase in job creation and a big reduction in unemployment” #SOTU https://t.co/kWE3c4fEkn pic.twitter.com/VHqhAVGjPs

— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) July 26, 2020

Kudlow has been predicting a strong, V-shaped recovery for months. 

On Sunday, he also said that he thinks the joblessness rate will fall, despite rising COVID-19 cases and businesses still shut down in many parts of the country. 

“I don’t know the July number, we’ll all learn it in about a week or so, but I do think the odds favor a big increase in job creation and big reduction in unemployment. I just want to make the point, though, all these other signals Jake, most economists, Wall Street, elsewhere, are  suggesting we are in a self sustaining recovery,” Kudlow said. 

Cases continue to rise in much of the U.S. The virus has infected more than 4 million people and killed 146,484 people in the U.S., according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.