U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is forecasting that a “substantial acceleration” will occur in the country’s economy in 2026 as a result of decreasing prices in consumer goods and increasing real income.

During a recent interview with Fox News’s Maria Bartiromo, Bessent argued that inflation is now becoming manageable under the Trump administration, whereas under Biden, it reached upwards of 9% in 2022. It currently stands at around 3%.

“We inherited this terrible inflation. We are flattening it out,” he remarked. “I believe we are going to push it down. Energy prices are down, interest rates are down. But the real thing that is going to happen that is going to give Americans real purchasing power increases, it’s going to be through growth. … [T]hanks to the president keeping his campaign promises — no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on Social Security, deductibility of auto loans … Working Americans will change their withholdings, and they will get a bump up in their real incomes. I will expect in the first quarter, we are going to see the inflation curve bend down and the real income curve substantially accelerate, and when those two lines cross, Americans are going to feel it.”

The comments come as economic uncertainty has rattled the consumer goods market, with the price of beef surging almost 13%, coffee increasing almost 19%, and bananas rising almost 7%. Some experts like Omaha Steaks President and CEO Nate Rempe say that beef could reach $10 a pound by next year. But Bessent predicted that prices will begin to level off due to Trump removing tariffs as a result of trade deals.

“We’ve been working on trade deals with Central and South American countries for six [to] eight months,” he pointed out. “Just this past week we signed the trade deals. So not only will the tariffs come off … coffee, cocoa, [and] bananas, [and] many other items, that’s a result of the trade deals going through, and then we will see this go down. We are also seeing the import barriers for the other countries come through. So this is a complete trade policy, and now we are going to see it affect the prices.”

Bessent further contended that America’s economy will begin to take off at the beginning of next year.

“I think we are going to see a substantial acceleration in the economy in the first, second quarter, and I think we are already seeing on many prices … we’re bending that curve down, and the increase in real income, I think Americans are going to feel it in the first quarter, second quarter,” he underscored. “I think [in] 2026, thanks to President Trump’s signature plans, is going to be a great year for working Americans, for the markets. I call it parallel prosperity — main street and Wall Street can both do great, but I think main street is going to have a great year in 2026.”

Economists like Dave Brat, who serves as senior vice president of Business Relations at Liberty University, are also predicting booming growth as a result of significant global investments secured by the Trump administration.

“[Trump] is bringing in $2 trillion pledges in capital investment and over $10 trillion in capital coming in from abroad,” he told Family Research Council’s Jody Hice during “Washington Watch” last week. “That capital is the number one determinant of economic growth. So that will guarantee help [for] the economy going forward. But that capital probably takes two, three, four years to even start having its effect. [For] GDP growth, the Atlanta Fed has this growing at 4[%] … [T]he long run trajectory is only 2[%].”

Brat, a former congressman, went on to posit that a renewed focus on education must be implemented in order to strengthen the American economy.

“[O]ne thing that politicians don’t pay any attention to is education,” he lamented. “If you want the economy to get going, you cannot have 12% literacy rates — 12% reading rates for poor kids in Chicago’s inner city. How in the world are you going to have an economy? If Trump does that … the black, brown, blue-collar workers will stay strong with Trump if he shows he really cares about them.”