Jamie Dimon Exclusive: US economy weakening but not yet in 'disaster' mode

The US economy is weakening, but not a ‘disaster’, is the view of Jamie Dimon, who sits at the helm of the world’s largest bank, JPMorgan Chase & Co.

In an exclusive interaction with CNBC-TV18 on Monday, Dimon highlighted that he is a little more cautious on inflation than most others.

“There is a lot of conflicting data which is not perfect,” Dimon said, adding that despite the high inflation, consumers are continuing to spend.

For the month of August, US Consumer Prices rose at an annualised pace of 2.9%, well above the Fed’s 2% target, while Core Inflation also stood at 3.1%.

The jobs data for the month of August showed an addition of only 22,000 jobs in August, which indicated a weakening labor market, as numbers for the previous months were also revised lower, so much so that the June jobs number slipped into negative, marking the first month of negative jobs growth since 2020.

Despite this, retail sales and consumer spending continues to remain intact, raising doubts on the real state of the US economy. The second revised estimates for US GDP also showed the economy expanding at a 3.3% pace year-on-year, higher than what analysts had anticipated.

“Its not a disaster, its weakening,” Dimon said, when asked about the state of the US economy. He went on add that there is going to be a lot of Artificial Intelligence (AI)-related capex that is on the anvil.

The US Federal Reserve cut interest rates for the first time in 2025 despite the higher inflation, giving precedence to a weak labor market, and the JPMorgan Chase CEO does not expect inflation to go away anytime soon.

“That (inflation) may not go away so quick because of the global deficits around the world. Those have an inflationary effect, the remilitarization of the world, the restructuring of trade, those things all are inflationary of sorts,” Dimon said.

In case there is less migration due to the H-1B issue to the US, it could help push up standard US wage, according to Dimon, and that could also contribute to the inflation remaining at elevated levels. “(Rising Wages in US), which is not all bad, because, you know, a lot of people you know deserve a wage increase.

All eyes will now be on the PCE inflation data that will be reported on Friday, and that is the Fed’s preferred gauge to measure the inflation scenario in the US.

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