(Reuters) – Failure to deliver more government aid to households could precipitate a wave of mortgage defaults and evictions, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said on Wednesday in a fresh warning amid a continued deadlock in Congress over another coronavirus relief package.
While households are spending now, perhaps using what’s left of money from the $2.3 trillion package passed by Congress in March, “the risk is they will go through that money, ultimately, and have to cut back on spending and maybe lose their home or their lease,” Powell said in testimony before the Senate Banking Committee.
“That is the downside risk of no further action. We don’t see much of that yet, but it could well be out there in the not-too-distant future,” Powell said in the last of three hearings in which he testified before Congress this week.
(Reporting by Howard Schneider, Ann Saphir; Editing by Paul Simao)
