Chairman Powell testified before Senate Banking Committee on the rate of inflation.
Chair of the Federal Reserve Jerome Powell recently testified before the Senate Banking Committee, where he said the Fed was planning on taking interest hikes more moderately as inflation slows. The committee members asked the Fed chair why interest rate hikes were paused after nearly 10 consecutive increases.
Chairman Powell stated, “Inflation has moderated somewhat since the middle of last year. Nonetheless, inflation pressures continue to run high, and the process of getting inflation back down to 2% has a long way to go.”
“Given how far we’ve come, it may make sense to move rates higher but to do so at a more moderate pace,” Chairman Powell told the committee. “We are within a couple of rate hikes of the level we need to get to.”
Some federal legislators and even other Federal Reserve leaders disagree with this assessment. “What Fed governors call ‘cooling down’ regular people where I live call layoffs,” Senate Banking Committee Chair Sherrod Brown told the Fed chair at the hearing, questioning if additional interest hikes are necessary. Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic echoed these sentiments, saying that the current interest rate of 5% to 5.25% was good enough.
As the Lord Leads, Pray with Us…
- For Chairman Powell to seek God’s wisdom regarding future interest rate increases.
- For discernment for Senator Brown as he chairs the Senate Banking Committee.
- For other Federal Reserve leaders as they provide assessments and feedback regarding the U.S. economy and inflation.
Sources: Reuters, AP
