MNI BRIEF: Fed's Goolsbee Wants 'A Lot' More Months Like May
Chicago Fed President says the central bank is going to get a lot of data between now and the September and December meetings.
Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee said Friday in the near- to medium-term what will determine whether interest rates can go back to normal is whether inflation is on the path to the 2% target, adding he wants "a lot' more months like May's inflation prints before cutting.
"Inflation [in the May CPI] was back down to levels that if we got a lot of months like this, we would be feeling so much better that we were getting inflation to the Fed's target," he said in Q&A at an Iowa Farm Bureau economic event. Goolsbee preferred not to say when he'd like to first cut rates because it ties his hands as a policymaker. (See: MNI INTERVIEW: FOMC Won’t Agree On Cuts Until December-Pingle)
Goolsbee said the May CPI inflation data was "very good" but was just one month, adding that the central bank is going to get a lot of data between now and the September and December FOMC meetings. "We are going to get to 2%. I am telling you."