United States & Mahoning Valley - Even with higher tariffs and elevated interest rates driving inflation, the U.S. economy is entering the new year stronger than many people expected.

That is according to Dr. Bob Badowski, Chair of the School of Business at Westminster College, who spoke with WFMJ Weekend Today about what is helping keep the economy moving.

Badowski said consumer spending has remained resilient, even as prices climbed.

"Well, I think mainly consumer spending has been kind of increasing as well as government spending," Badowski said. "So I think that's what's kind of keeping things moving along."

Still, consumers continue to feel the impact of higher prices tied to tariffs, raising questions about whether these policies are working as planned. Badowski said the answer is not yet clear. 

“It’s one of those things where we kind of have to see what’s going to happen,” he said. “I think as far as the Trump administration thinks, they are working as planned. They were basically a bargaining chip that we would have with different countries to be able to bargain back and forth and to essentially bring manufacturing back to the United States.”

As for relief at the checkout line, Badowski believes there could be movement this year to ease costs for consumers.

 “Republicans have been getting a lot of pressure to lower prices and make day to day living a little bit easier. There’s a midterm election coming up, so I think they’re going to try to do whatever they can to lower prices as much as they can, because it’s good for their election,” Badowski said.