US Will See 5-6% Economic Growth, Says Hassett

National Port: The United States expects to witness higher economic growth, repeating the dot-com boom of the 1990s, following reforms implemented by the Trump administration under its “America First” policy, a senior US economic official said.

Speaking at the 2026 SelectUSA Investment Summit, White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett said: “If you remember when the dot-com revolution really started in the ’90s, we had growth rates in the 5s and 6s, and we’re poised to see that again.”

The United States, the world’s largest economy, saw its highest economic growth in 30 years between 1997 and 2000, when GDP increased by four to five percent. Due to the impact of the post-Covid recovery, the country was only able to exceed this growth rate with a growth of 5.95 percent in 2021.

Explaining his optimism about the high economic growth in his country, Hassett said that the USA imports a lot of capital goods and this will bring employment back to the country.

“The number one driver of GDP growth was a very healthy number of capital expenditures. The only negative in the data was that all the things we imported were capital goods… If you look at the quality of imports, the United States is now buying machines from China instead of carnival stuffed animals. That means the growth of this economy is going to be something that significantly outperforms what we saw in President Trump’s first term,” said Hassett, who works at the U.S. Federal Reserve. In the 1990s under Governor Alan Greenspan.

Referring to a new study on artificial intelligence, the economist said, “Artificial Intelligence enables everyone to do their job more efficiently. Moreover, it does not currently impose costs on jobs. In fact, the first applications for unemployment insurance in the USA are at the lowest level since the 1960s, so no one loses their job. Everyone is developing.”

Elaborating further on his country’s growth outlook, he said: “AI is creating a productivity boom that increases productivity by 2.5 to 3.5 percent. This means the US economy will grow by 2.5 to 3.5 percent.” [even] if we don’t invest more, if we don’t hire more workers, and if we don’t get any growth from capital expenditures or labor. “But our estimate is that capital will contribute 1.5 to 2 percent and labor maybe 0.5 to 1 percent.”