MNI: Powell-Fed Restrictive, Meeting-By-Meeting Decisions

Federal Reserve policy is already restrictive, allowing caution about whether more tightening is needed given the lagged effects of past rate hikes, Chair Jerome Powell said Friday.

"We've come a long way in policy tightening and stance of policy is restrictive and we face uncertainty about the lagged effects our tightening so far and about the extent of credit tightening from recent banking stresses," he said.

"Today our guidance is limited to identifying the factors we'll be monitoring as we assess the extent to which additional policy firming may be appropriate to return inflation to 2% over time. That assessment will be an ongoing one, meeting by meeting." (See MNI INTERVIEW: Fed Pause Could Make Inflation More Entrenched)

Powell did not tip his hand on whether he favors a pause or one additional hike at the June meeting.