Chairman Jerome Powell holds a live press conference after the Fed left interest rates unchanged as expected.
Here are the highlights of what Powell said at the press conference:
- The economy remains generally strong, with labor market conditions remaining robust, if cooling.
- Inflation remains high.
- GDP is expected to exceed 2% in 2024.
- Hardware investments appear to have slowed.
- Inflation is closer to target, but still slightly elevated.
- The labor market is not a source of inflationary pressure.
- The unemployment rate remains low at 4.1%.
- We do not need to rush to adjust the policy rate.
- Long-term inflation expectations appear robust.
- We cannot comment on Trump’s statements.
- Current policy is significantly looser than when we first started lowering interest rates.
- Before reducing interest rates, there needs to be significant progress in inflation or weakness in the labor market.
A statement that the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) did not include in its January statement could be a bigger signal to markets than what the committee included in its statement.
The latest statement reads, “Inflation remains moderately elevated.” The December version of this sentence was longer and read, “Inflation has made progress toward the Committee’s 2 percent target but remains moderately elevated.”
This change may be one of the reasons why the FED paused after cutting interest rates three times in a row.
Although Trump has no authority over what policy the Fed should pursue, he and Powell have been at odds on policy since the president’s first term in Washington. Just last week, Trump said he would “demand an immediate reduction in interest rates.”
*This is not investment advice.
