Goldman Sachs Sees Economy Stregthening in 2018, Warns About Crypto, Credit

Investing.com - Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) expects the U.S economy to be robust in 2018, but warns about potential detrimental effects from the credit and cryptocurrency markets. Jan Hatzius, economist at Goldman Sachs noted Friday in a report that "Asset valuations in some areas - especially credit - have risen to high levels by historical standards. While we have not seen the type of large credit expansions that would be most worrisome for Fed officials concerned about financial imbalances, there are now some signs of speculative behavior in financial markets, for example the cryptocurrency boom."Among other predictions made by Hatzius for 2018, he sees four Federal Reserve rate hikes, a 3.5% unemployment rate, and the GDP growing at 2.6%. According to the report, core inflation is expected to continue rising in 2018, and U.S wage growth is expected to resume.However, the crash of a potential bubble in cryptocurrency assets, fueled by returns of over 1290% for Bitcoin in 2017 could derail what is projected to be a strong year for the U.S economy.