U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in a conversation with ABC acknowledged that the economy is slowing down. As for the general fear of recession in the U.S., she chose an optimistic tone, saying that she did not consider this scenario inevitable. She justified her view by the fact that consumer spending is high and the labor market is strong - the number of vacancies is twice as high as the number of job seekers on average. The problem of record-breaking inflation, she said, was not confined to the United States; it was also a global problem in Europe. The Minister does not expect it to disappear immediately, but believes that the price level will gradually decrease. U.S. stock indices were mostly up on Friday, with the S&P 500 and NASDAQ gaining 0.22% and 1.43%, respectively, while the Dow Jones was down 0.13%. European stocks were mostly down - only DAX (Germany, +0.67%) increased, FTSE 100 (UK) lost 0.41%, CAC 40 (France) - 0.061%.