Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said several more interest rate hikes would be needed to keep inflation under control. He said recent data showed that the labor market remained extremely tight.
“I think we will need more rate hikes,” he said in an interview with David Rubenstein at the Economic Club of Washington on Wednesday, adding that “the labor market is extraordinarily strong.”
Interview with Chairman Powell (excerpt)
Source: Bloomberg
Asked about the last Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, if he had had advance employment data for January, he would have chosen a 0.5 percentage point rate hike instead of the officially decided 0.25 percentage point hike. “Unfortunately, we don’t make policy decisions that way,” he said, avoiding giving a clear answer.
According to the US employment statistics released on the 3rd, the number of non-farm workers increased by 517,000 from the previous month. The unemployment rate fell to 3.4%, the lowest level since May 1969.
Powell said the jobs report “shows why we think it’s going to be a very time-consuming process.”
Original title:Powell Says Further Rate Hikes Needed Amid ‘Strong’ Labor Market(excerpt)
(Adds and updates Chairman Powell’s remarks)
