In his annual letter to shareholders, JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s chief executive officer, Jamie Dimon, predicted an economic boom that “could easily run into 2023.”
The prediction is likely welcome news for the health and fitness industry, as one of the industries most negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. According to IHRSA, the industry lost an estimated $20.4 billion in 2020, “just one year removed from generating an all-time high of $35 billion in revenue.”
Dimon credits the predicted boom to a number of factors, including:
- Strong consumer savings and deficit spending.
- A potential $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan.
- Expanded vaccine distribution.
- “Euphoria around the end of the pandemic.”
“Circumstances and starting points matter,” Dimon elaborated. “Before the Great Recession, you had an overleveraged financial system and overleveraged consumers. For years after the Great Recession, there was a massive deleveraging in the United States by consumers, many investors and financial institutions, somewhat due to regulations. Today, this is not the case.”
Instead, the average consumer’s balance sheet is in great shape, said Dimon.
As a result, Dimon has little doubt that between “excess savings, new stimulus savings, huge deficit spending, more QE, a new potential infrastructure bill, a successful vaccine and euphoria around the end of the pandemic, the U.S. economy will likely boom. This boom could easily run into 2023 because all the spending could extend well into 2023.”
Although the health and fitness industry is still in the throws of negative impacts surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, I’ve heard from many operators who are feeling more and more optimistic by the day.
Hopefully, this economic boom prediction from Dimon will provide further hope for the full recovery of the health and fitness industry in the months ahead.
Read Dimon’s letter in full.
