Biden made the remarks Thursday while visiting Syracuse, New York, to highlight recent legislation intended to bolster the U.S. manufacturing of computer chips. Earlier that day, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) published figures showing the economy had bounced back from two contractions and grew 2.6 percent in the third quarter. As the president defended his record, Republicans continued to hammer him amid polls showing voters remain worried about the economy.

“Even though my Republican friends in Congress seem to be hoping for a recession—present company excluded—today the GDP results came out, and the economy in fact is growing,” Biden said to a crowd gathered to hear him speak.

Biden’s time in office has been marked by high inflation and soaring gas prices that his political opponents have seized upon as evidence of economic mismanagement. Earlier BEA figures show the economy shrank during the first two quarters of 2022, raising questions over whether the U.S. had entered a recession even as unemployment remained low.

The government recognizes that U.S. has officially entered a recession when the National Bureau of Economic Research, a private think tank, has made the call. Despite no official declaration, Republicans insisted over the summer that the U.S. had entered a recession under Biden’s watch, and continued to say the U.S. was experiencing one even as the newest BEA numbers showed the economy had grown.

“Joe Biden and House Democrats’ reckless spending have plunged our economy into a recession,” New York Representative Elise Stefanik, chair of the House Republican Conference, said in a tweet Thursday.

Texas Representative Kevin Brady, the top GOP member of the House Ways and Means Committee, issued a statement Thursday saying that “economists have dumbed down economic projections” to reflect Biden’s “struggling policies.”

Brady said the positive numbers reflected “ghost growth” driven by a surge in exports and government spending. He said experts predicted the economy would fall into a recession this year as workers see their incomes and retirement shrink from inflation.

“Joe Biden’s economy is a very cruel economy for working families,” he said.

Biden pushed back on his critics during his Syracuse appearance, highlighting decreasing gas prices, incomes during the last quarter rising faster than inflation and that he had signed legislation intended to lower drug prices for Medicare recipients.

Biden said under his watch the U.S. added more than 700,000 manufacturing jobs.

“The previous president made a string of broken promises in places like Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, where promised investments in jobs and manufacturing never materialized,” he said.

Newsweek reached out to the National Republican Committee for comment.