Investing.com — Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell said Wednesday most voting Fed participants support lowering interest rates at some point this year, but not until the central bank has greater confidence from incoming data that inflation is on a sustainable move lower.
“If the economy evolves broadly as we expect, most FOMC participants see it as likely to be appropriate to begin lowering the policy rate at some point this year,” Powell said in opening remarks ahead of a question-and-answer session at Stanford University.
But a pivot to cuts isn’t expected to arrive until “we have greater confidence that inflation is moving sustainably down toward 2 percent,” the fed chief added.
Powell continued to flag the risk for the future monetary policy decision remain two-sided risks — cutting rates too early, risks undoing the progress on inflation, but keeping rates higher for longer could unduly “weaken economic activity and employment.”
dipped following the news, dragging the lower.
