Former U.S. treasury secretary sees recession ahead: report

NEW YORK, June 20 (Xinhua) -- Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers said on Sunday that his "best guess" is there will be a recession in the United States amid growing concerns about inflation.

"Look, nothing is certain, and all economic forecasts have uncertainty. My best guess is that a recession is ahead," The Hill quoted Summers as saying during an appearance on NBC's "Meet The Press."

"I base that on the fact that we haven't had a situation like the present with inflation above 4 percent and unemployment beyond 4 percent without a recession following within a year or two," he said.

Summers also said that it's likely "that in order to do what's necessary to stop inflation, the Fed is going to raise interest rates enough that the economy will slip into recession."

"And I think that view ... is now the view of a number of statistical models and the view of a range of forecasters and I think will increasingly become a consensus view," he added.