NY Fed Williams: Global COVID Risks Could Impact U.S. "In Multiple Ways"

NY Fed Pres Williams has been a little louder than most on the FOMC leadership to play up international COVID problems as a downside risk to the US economic outlook - a good chunk of his interview with the WSJ published today touches on this and the potential implications:

• "When I think in the global outlook, that's where I guess I have the greater focus on some of the downside risks. You can expect a lot of uncertainty from the events in India and South America and other parts of the world where the virus has continued to spread and with the terrible human consequences in terms of a health crisis."
• He sees this potentially impacting the US economy "in multiple ways": in a direct way, via weaker demand for US exports, including for the "significant" American tourism sector.
• But also on inflation, as with "many countries struggling to get their economies back to their full potential, that means that there are global disinflationary pressures continuing." Williams sees these foreign headwinds as "disinflationary" for the U.S., "despite the fact that the U.S. economy is, you know, doing quite well."
• With most data suggesting the U.S. domestic economy is firing on all cylinders, there don't seem to be many downside risks on the horizon - so it'll be interesting in coming weeks to see how concerned FOMC speakers are on the global picture and how they see it impacting the U.S. outlook.