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MNI: Powell Warns Fed Prepared To Tighten Further If Needed

FED
  • (MNI) Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Friday the U.S. central bank is prepared to raise interest rates again if needed even as he acknowledged "considerable progress" in reducing high inflation while maintaining a strong labor market.
  • His remarks come just hours before the FOMC begins its communications blackout period ahead of the December meeting, in which officials are expected to hold rates steady in a 5.5%-5.75% range.
    • "It would be premature to conclude with confidence that we have achieved a sufficiently restrictive stance, or to speculate on when policy might ease. We are prepared to tighten policy further if it becomes appropriate to do so," the Fed chair told Spelman College students.
  • "Like most forecasters, my colleagues and I anticipate that growth in spending and output will slow over the next year, as the effects of the pandemic and the reopening fade and as restrictive monetary policy weighs on aggregate demand. The FOMC is strongly committed to bringing inflation down to 2% over time, and to keeping policy restrictive until we are confident that inflation is on a path to that objective."
  • The Fed would continue to make decisions "meeting by meeting, based on the totality of the incoming data," he said.

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