Obama Discusses Threats to US Economy With Federal Reserve Chief

President Barack Obama met alone with his Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen for the first time since appointing her to the positoin, in order to discuss the growth outlook and threats to the US economy, the White House announced in a read out.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Obama and Yellen met after signs that the soft US economic recovery was faltering.

"The president and chair Yellen met this afternoon in the Oval Office as part of an ongoing dialogue on the state of the economy," the read out stated on Monday. "They discussed both the near- and long-term growth outlook, the state of the labor market, inequality and potential risks to the economy."

Last week, several US economists reduced their tracking estimates for growth in the first-quarter Gross Domestic Product to near zero, after a 1.4 percent gain in the last quarter of 2015, Bloomberg News noted.

Also last week, Yellen claimed tremendous progress with respect to the US economy since the economic recession of 2007, though she acknowledged that unemployment levels were higher than expected.

Before Obama and Yellen met, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters Obama was pleased with his Federal Reserve chief.