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Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin predicted the US economy will begin to rebound from the devastating effects of the coronavirus pandemic as states begin to relax stay-at-home guidelines and reopen businesses.

“I think as we begin to reopen the economy in May and June, you’re going to see the economy really bounce back in July, August, September,” he said on “Fox News Sunday.” “We are putting an unprecedented amount of fiscal relief into the economy. You’re seeing trillions of dollars that’s making its way into the economy and I think this is going to have a significant impact.”

But Fox News’ Chris Wallace said that assessment goes against forecasts from most economic experts and the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

Wallace said they project the economy will contract by 5.6 percent this year and unemployment could reach 16 percent by this fall.

“We’ve never seen anything like this. … This is a scenario where we’ve closed the economy, and we’re going to open the economy so all these models are based upon health assumptions on how quickly we reopen. My own opinion is again we have unprecedented amount of liquidity in the system,” Mnuchin said.

He noted that billions in dollars from the Paycheck Protection Program are arriving in Americans’ bank accounts and that when businesses begin to open “you’re going to see the demand side of the economy rebound.”

Mnuchin was also asked about how quickly the first small business loan fund that ran out of money two weeks ago and the nearly half-trillion-dollar coronavirus relief bill that President Trump signed on Friday designed to replenish the loan fund.

“To me, it’s not a matter of how long it lasts. Actually, I think the sooner the money is dispersed, the better. So the first round impacted about 30 million workers. I think this round will be about the same, that’ll be close to 50 percent of the private workforce,” Mnuchin said. “So I actually hope we run out of money quickly, so we can get the money into the workers’ pockets.”

He parried a question about whether aid to states and cities would be included in future stimulus bills after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell suggested that states should be allowed to declare bankruptcy.

Mnuchin said the matter would be discussed on a “bipartisan basis” in Congress.

“The president has heard from governors. He wants to protect governors. This is something we’ll consider but our focus right now is really on execution,” he said.

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