By Jeff Mason
NEW YORK (Reuters) -U.S. Council of Economic Advisers Chair Jared Bernstein said on Wednesday he did not "thus far" see the Israel-Gaza war as an exogenous shock that could derail U.S. economic growth, but noted that Washington was watching its impact on oil prices.
Bernstein said he remained generally upbeat about the U.S. economy, and did not expect a possible government shutdown to result in a recession, although it was hard to be sure without knowing the length of any potential disruption.
"I'd say from the tailwind perspective, we're looking at a pretty clear transition to steady and stable growth," he told the Reuters NEXT conference in New York.
"On the headwind side, certainly being in a higher rate environment is something we have to be mindful of. There is obviously a terrible new conflict in a part of the world that is sensitive for energy production, so we have to watch the price of oil."
The price of U.S. crude initially jumped after the militant Hamas group's Oct. 7 attack on Israel, but it has since fallen to about $75 per barrel, the lowest since July.
(Reporting by Jeff Mason; Writing by Andrea Shalal and Dan Burns; Editing by Richard Chang)
