Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan predicted Sunday it’ll be “late next year” before the U.S. economy returns to pre-coronavirus levels.

In an interview on CBS News’ “Face The Nation,” Moynihan said experts are looking at consumer spending as a guide.

“Our experts think it's late next year when the economy gets back to the same size it was prior to this,” he said. “What we see in our consumer spending is kind of interesting, and it reflects this question of unemployment and cash flow in a household, because so far the spending by our consumers, if you took from January to this week, it's actually flat to last year. 

“After the first round of provision buying, which was a flood of activity, you're now seeing that level out,” he added. “That actually provides some hope that as the economy opens up in pieces, and safely, you'll see that consumer spending continue to grow, which will help fuel the U.S. economy.”

He also said the small business loan program passed by Congress should be expanded so that it no longer runs on a first-come, first-served basis. 

“It’s clear that between Congress, the administration and the American people, we need to get all these funded and not make this a foot race. Just get the work done,” Moynihan said.

“The difference between this program and unemployment is if you qualify for this program, it’s like getting unemployment authorization and then having a foot race to the office,” Moynihan said.

 “We need to take away the first-come, first-served aspects of this and make sure it’s fully funded, because at the end of the day, it’s going to where people want it: small businesses, 25% in our case to businesses in low and moderate income neighborhoods, business with small numbers of employees. We just need to finish the funding and finish the work.”

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