Powell warns that the Fed is prepared to maintain interest rates if inflation takes hold

April 16 () –

The president of the United States Federal Reserve (Fed), Jerome Powell, warned this Tuesday that the institution he presides is prepared to maintain its restrictive monetary policy unchanged in the face of the strength of the labor market and the entrenchment of inflation.

“If the rise in inflation persists, we can maintain the current level of restriction for as long as necessary. At the same time, we have considerable room to relax monetary policy in case the labor market weakens unexpectedly,” he said. Powell explained at a United States-Canada economic forum in statements reported by Europa Press.

Furthermore, he has specified that the most recent inflation data have not given the North American issuing institute greater confidence that it is converging in a sustained manner with the 2% objective and that, in fact, they suggest that it is “likely” that it will It will take longer than expected to reach that level of certainty.

The person in charge of US monetary policy has stated that given the progress previously obtained in terms of inflation and the good performance of the labor market, which has now had 26 consecutive months with less than 4% unemployment, “it is advisable to give more time to restrictions and let the data and evolving outlook guide us.

In any case, Powell has assured that the performance of the US economy over the last year has been “very good” thanks to an improvement on the supply side that has favored both aggregate demand and employment. This process would have coincided with a moderation in inflation, but, as he has pointed out, the cooling of prices would have stopped at the beginning of 2024.