Chicago Fed President Goolsbee says recent reports show inflation is moving in the right direction
The latest batch of economic data shows positive developments on the inflation front, but the Federal Reserve's job is not over yet, Chicago Federal Reserve President Austan Goolsbee said.
Goolsbee, who succeeded Charles Evans in the president role earlier this year, is a member of the Federal Open Market Committee, which sets the federal funds rate.
«When you see the producer prices coming in as big negative numbers and you see these negatives on retail sales, you don't want to overreact to short-run news, but it feels like that's moving in the right direction,» he said on CNBC's «Squawk Box» Friday to Steve Liesman.
Data on advanced retail sales released Friday morning showed consumer spending slowed in March amid concerns related to the bank crisis and potential for a recession. The data showed a 1% decline in March, which is larger fall than the 0.5% expected by economists polled by Dow Jones. March marked the biggest month-over-month fall since November.
Excluding autos, retail sales fell 0.8% in the month,. That's also a larger drop than the 0.4% analysts anticipated.
On Thursday, the March producer price index, a measure of prices paid by companies, declined 0.5% from the prior month, despite as economists expecting prices to stay the same. Excluding food and energy, the index shed 0.1% from the prior month, while economists estimated a 0.2% month-to-month increase.
Investors saw that data as building on the March consumer price index report released Wednesday. The CPI showed consumer prices were up 5% from the same month a year ago, the smallest year-over-year increase seen in nearly two years.
Still, he noted there's «clear stickiness» in some areas of pricing. And with current economic conditions, Goolsbee said
Read more on cnbc.com
