Chair Powell On Whether The Fed Boxed Themselves In With Prior Guidance

Q: Did you box yourself in at the last meeting on 50bp in Jun / Jul? What role did you play in reshaping mkt expectations Monday?

• A: We aim to provide as much clarity as we can about our intentions subject to economic uncertainty. In the current highly uncertain circumstances, important to provide even more clarity than usual. Over the course of this year, markets have generally shown they understand the path we're laying out. It remains data dependent. When I offered guidance at the last meeting I said it was subject to the economy evolving in line w expectations; said that if data was worse than expected, would consider a more aggressive hike. CPI / Expectations data last week made us believe this was appropriate to do.
• Wait 6 weeks until the next meeting? That's not where we are with this, so we made the decision.