United States President Joe Biden and former US President Donald Trump’s first debate of the 2024 campaign has refocused consideration on their respective financial data in workplace.
Throughout Thursday’s head-to-head, the candidates clashed on the financial system, with Biden taking credit score for overseeing the restoration from the COVID-19 pandemic and Trump claiming to have presided over “the best financial system within the historical past of our nation”.
Each Biden and Trump might level to sturdy performances specifically areas of the financial system, however opinion polls have persistently proven that voters have extra belief within the Republican’s capacity to deal with financial and cost-of-living points.
In an ABC Information/Ipsos ballot launched final month, 46 % of respondents mentioned they trusted Trump on the financial system, in contrast with 32 % for Biden.
On inflation, Trump was favoured over the Democrat by 44 to 30 %.
Polls additionally present that Individuals overwhelmingly view the financial system as their high precedence, that means that Biden’s re-election hopes are more likely to stay or die relying on his capacity to promote a optimistic financial message.
Listed here are Trump and Biden’s financial data in contrast in 4 key areas.
Financial progress
Each the Biden and Trump administrations oversaw intervals of strong progress.
Since Biden’s inauguration, gross home product (GDP) has elevated by 8.4 % when adjusted for inflation.
Beneath Trump, GDP grew 6.8 % – however that features the plunge in financial exercise that occurred in the course of the first yr of the pandemic.
Excluding 2020, Biden comes out barely forward, with an annualised progress charge of about 2.9 %, in contrast with slightly below 2.7 % for Trump.
Inflation
Biden’s tenure has been marked by far larger inflation in contrast with Trump’s – though most of the elements driving excessive costs, corresponding to COVID-related provide chain disruptions, had been out of his management.
Since Biden got here to workplace, costs have risen greater than 19 %.
The typical worth of a gallon (3.8 litres) of petrol rose from $2.33 to $3.76 between January 2021 and Might of this yr, based on the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The price of a loaf of bread elevated from $1.55 to $1.97, whereas the value of a dozen eggs jumped from $1.47 to $2.70
At an analogous level in Trump’s presidency, costs had solely risen about 5 %.
Whereas inflation has come down sharply since peaking at 9.1 % in mid-2022, it stays stubbornly excessive.
The patron worth index final month stood at 3.3 %, properly above the US Federal Reserve’s goal of about 2 %.
Jobs
Biden and Trump can each declare to have presided over sturdy labour markets.
Unemployment fell to a 53-year low of three.4 % in January final yr and has stayed under 4 % for all however one month since then.
Excluding 2020, Trump additionally oversaw a interval of low unemployment, with the jobless charge hitting a low of three.5 % in late 2019.
Beneath Biden, the financial system has added about 15.7 million jobs.
In contrast, Trump left workplace with some three million fewer jobs – though that determine was skewed by the pandemic.
Nonetheless, even earlier than the pandemic, job creation grew at a slower tempo throughout Trump’s administration than it has beneath Biden.
Wages
Whereas Biden and Trump each presided over strong wage progress on paper, US staff have seen their earnings decline in actual phrases beneath Biden as a result of inflation.
Beneath Trump, wage progress stayed above inflation, delivering modest rises in staff’ incomes.
From March 2021, client costs started to diverge from earnings, earlier than the development began to reverse in early 2023.
The upshot is that actual median weekly wages fell by 2.14 % between the beginning of Biden’s time period and the primary quarter of 2024, based on a FactCheck.org evaluation citing US Bureau of Labor Statistics knowledge.
The optimistic information for US staff is that wages have began rising once more.
In Might, actual wages rose 0.5 % in contrast with the earlier yr, though they’ve but to get better to their ranges firstly of Biden’s tenure.
“Whereas actual wage progress has turned barely optimistic in current months, the extent of actual wages remains to be under the place they had been on the onset of the inflation surge that we started to see within the first quarter of 2021,” the Federal Reserve Financial institution of Atlanta mentioned in an evaluation on Thursday.
“Merely put, actual wages haven’t totally caught as much as the sudden burst in inflation.”