Fed need not be in hurry to cut rates, inflation data within expectations: Jerome Powell
annual rate of 2.5 per cent in February, up 0.1 percentage points from a month earlier. The personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index data released on Friday "is what we were expecting," Powell said, and even though the numbers showed less of a slowdown than last year, "you won't see us overreacting." The data last month were "not as low as most of the good readings we got in the second half of last year, but it's definitely more along the lines of what we want to see," Powell said during an appearance at the San Francisco Fed where he was interviewed by Kai Ryssdal of public radio's "Marketplace" program.
Powell's comments were in line with his remarks after the Fed's policy meeting last week, in which he said higher-than-expected inflation in January and February had not changed the sense that price rises would keep falling this year to the central bank's 2% target. Government data showed the PCE price index increased at a 2.5% annual rate in February, up from 2.4% in the prior month.
The number excluding volatile food and energy prices rose 0.3% on a month-to-month basis, slightly faster than Powell anticipated when he said last week that February core inflation would be "well below" 0.3%. Still, Powell indicated the February report did not undermine the Fed's baseline outlook.Milestone Alert!
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