Laurence D. Fink, chief executive officer of BlackRock Inc., said the U.S. economy is growing more slowly than expected and will expand modestly at 2.4 percent in the second quarter.
"There are still dark clouds we have to face,” said Fink, in an interview with Bloomberg News on Monday. While corporate earnings have been good, “we aren’t seeing that rise in personal income we would have thought,” he said.
Fink reiterated his concern that a risk to the market is the White House’s ability to quickly pass key reforms. “Are we going to see tax reform in the U.S.?" said Fink.
The U.S. economy will expand 2.8 percent in the second quarter and 2.2 percent this year, according to a Bloomberg News survey.
In contrast to the U.S. outlook, “it is very positive in Europe,” Fink said. “Because of the political environment in Europe and because of [French President Emmanuel] Macron, I haven’t seen it this strong in 10 or 12 years."