Goldman Sachs Chairman and CEO David Solomon described his outlook for the US economy as "pretty constructive" in a CNBC interview conducted at the G20 finance leaders' meeting in Asheville, North Carolina, pointing to a resilient consumer, a substantial investment cycle, and what he called extraordinary earnings growth as key supports for continued expansion.

Solomon acknowledged that the economy is performing well overall, though not without friction. He cited the situation in the Middle East as well as trade policy and tariffs as headwinds currently working against the otherwise constructive backdrop. He did not offer a specific view on oil prices or energy markets directly.

The most market-relevant element of his remarks concerned the term Treasury premium — the extra yield investors demand to hold longer-dated US government debt instead of rolling short-term securities. Solomon framed the recent rise as a longer-term trend driven by US fiscal spending policy, more embedded inflation in the economy, and higher growth, rather than a one-off dislocation tied to any single event. He explicitly stated that a roughly 5 percent premium is not a calamity when viewed against historical norms, noting that such premiums have been higher in the past without triggering crisis conditions. That framing pushes back, gently, against narratives treating rising long-end yields as an alarm signal, and it offers a measured, data-grounded counterweight to more alarmist readings of the recent move in yields. His comments also align him, at least in tone, with the broader debate in markets this year over how much of the rise in long-dated yields reflects fiscal and inflation concerns rather than expectations for near-term Federal Reserve policy.

On artificial intelligence, Solomon took a longer view, saying the integration of AI into the economy and enterprise offers a genuine opportunity to lift the underlying growth rate over the next five to ten years, driven by productivity gains. He cautioned, however, that the path will not be linear and that not every individual AI investment will pay off — a caveat that comes amid sustained investor debate over the scale of capital spending on AI infrastructure by major technology companies.

Asked whether the debt-fuelled nature of the AI buildout poses a credit risk, Solomon said he does not currently see significant risk in the system. He noted that much of the credit issuance behind the buildout is coming from very large companies with fundamentally strong underlying cash flow, which are choosing to redirect earnings from other parts of their business into the growth cycle. His view that large-cap AI-related credit issuance is backed by strong underlying cash flow provides a measured counterpoint to more bearish credit-market commentary, though he acknowledged that some areas will likely go too far and that a recalibration is possible at some point. He said Goldman Sachs is watching the situation closely and is not overly concerned at present.

Turning to rates and currency policy, Solomon addressed recent Treasury and yen market interventions, noting he had reviewed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's own comments on the subject beforehand. He characterised such actions as signals rather than moves that fundamentally alter market trajectory, pointing to Japan as an example where intervention communicates commitment without necessarily changing the underlying path of the currency — a reference to Japan's long history of official yen intervention, which has typically produced short-lived moves rather than durable trend reversals. His broader message was that the world's largest markets are efficient enough to settle at their own levels regardless of official jawboning.

In short, Solomon's message was that the US economy is in good shape and that a higher term Treasury premium is a fiscal story rather than a five-alarm fire.