US recovery will happen this time: BofAML

[SINGAPORE] This time, the much-touted US recovery story is to be believed, says Ethan Harris, Bank of America Merrill Lynch's co-head of Global Economics Research.

"If you had asked me a year ago, I would've said don't believe the data, because the fiscal cliff was hitting," Mr Harris told BT recently in an exclusive interview. "We know data can just be randomness - it can look good for awhile, then bad for awhile. But as an economist, you become most bullish when the story and the data align with each other - which is what is happening right now."

That story is based on a confluence of factors, with the "most crucial" being the repairment of balance sheets across banks, corporates and households.