DAVOS, Jan 22 — President Donald Trump today criticised Boeing as a “very disappointing company” because of the aerospace giant’s recent problems after the grounding of the 737 MAX plane, which he said had a knock-on effect for the US economy.
“This is one of the great companies of the world, let’s say as of a year ago, and then all of a sudden thing happen,” Trump said in an interview on CNBC from the Davos economic forum in Switzerland.
This “had a tremendous impact. You know, when you talk about growth, it’s so big that some people say it’s more than a half a point of GDP. So Boeing — big, big disappointment to me,” he said.
Boeing had yesterday officially pushed back the time frame for the 737 MAX to return to the skies, sending shares plunging and overshadowing an earlier announcement of a first flight of the delayed 777X plane.
The 737 MAX was grounded worldwide March 13, 2019 after two crashes claimed the lives of 346 people.
US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Tuesday he believed that issues including the grounding of Boeing 737 MAX plane had shaved some 0.5 to 0.7 of a per cent point off the US growth rate. — AFP
