Bessent to testify before US Congress amid rising energy prices
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will deliver annual testimony before the US House Committee on Financial Services on Tuesday. Formally, the hearing will concern the international financial system and the International Monetary Fund, but lawmakers are also expected to raise issues of inflation, energy prices, interest rates, and public debt.
Fuel prices and Fed policy
As CNBC Top News reports, Democrats may ask Bessent about rising oil and fuel prices amid a new escalation of the war with Iran. The price of oil has exceeded $100 per barrel. According to AAA, the average price of gasoline in the United States stood at $4.32 per gallon as of Monday, up $1.14 from a year earlier. The cost of diesel fuel reached $6.23 per gallon, up $2.54 over the year.
Another possible topic is President Donald Trump's calls on Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh to cut rates. The consumer price index rose 3.4% year-on-year, while investors are actively betting on a Fed rate hike. Trump, by contrast, has said that the regulator should cut rates.
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Public debt and the administration's arguments
Bessent may also face criticism over the administration's fiscal indicators: US public debt has exceeded $40 trillion. The yield on 10-year Treasury bonds briefly reached 5% on Monday, while the average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage exceeded 7% last week.
In prepared testimony, Bessent plans to emphasize that wages for workers in the bottom quarter by earnings grew faster than those of the highest-paid group of workers. He is also expected to note that more than 64 million tax returns benefited from one of the tax breaks enacted last year. The US unemployment rate stands at 4.1%, and the S&P 500 index has risen by about 27% since Trump took office.
According to a preliminary copy of the testimony obtained by CNBC, Bessent plans to say that US economic strength has enabled the country to wage a large-scale campaign of economic isolation against Iran and those facilitating its activities. He previously criticized the IMF for expanding its scope of activity and called using American resources in the interests of the United States a government priority.
