Chair Powell On Whether The Fed Are Targeting Headline Or Core Inflation

Q: Are you targeting headline or core inflation? Are you chasing oil prices, if those drive expectations? When the members gave the SEP, when were they inserted in the record? Were they revised after Friday's data?

• A: We're responsible for inflation in the law. Core is more relevant to our monetary policy tools, it's a much better predictor of where inflation is going. We can't affect energy prices. But have to be mindful of the effect of headline inflation in inflation expectations.
• The SEP is of one piece, it reflects all of the economic readings and also the 75bp increase. People had that in hand when the SEP was submitted; reflects their feeling about this rate increase and what's going forward.