Jay Powell said the Federal Reserve’s job of bringing down inflation was “not yet done” and the US central bank needed “greater confidence” that price pressures were easing before cutting interest rates, striking a cautious tone on any quick changes to monetary policy.
The Fed’s chairman’s comments at Stanford University’s Business School on Wednesday come after the latest projections from Fed officials in March showed they expected to cut rates by 0.75 of a percentage point this year, down from its 23-year high of 5.25 per cent to 5.5 per cent.
But strong data on the labour market, and signs of stubbornly high inflation, have cast doubt on those forecasts.
Powell said the recent data did not “materially change the overall picture” and noted that “on inflation it is too soon to say whether the recent readings represent more than just a bump”.
However, he noted: “We do not expect that it will be appropriate to lower our policy rate until we have greater confidence that inflation is moving sustainably down towards 2 per cent.”