Powell: Half-point of additional hikes a “good guess” of policy outcome
Story by By Howard Schneider • 9h ago
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Further Federal Reserve rate increases are “a pretty good guess” of where the central bank is heading if the economy continues in its current direction, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said in remarks on Wednesday to lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
In response to a question late in a three-hour hearing before the House Financial Services Committee, Powell said he would not characterize the Fed’s decision last week not to increase rates as a “pause,” and noted the fact that a majority of policymakers see two more quarter-point rate increases as likely by the end of the year.
Senate Banking Committee holds hearing on Federal Reserve nominees on Capitol Hill in Washington© Thomson Reuters
“We didn’t use the word…and I wouldn’t use it here today,” Powell said. The outlook for two more rate hikes by the end of the year, included in the Summary of Economic Projections released by the Fed last week, “is a pretty good guess of what will happen if the economy performs about as expected,” Powell said.
Federal Reserve Chair Powell testifies before House Financial Services Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington© Thomson Reuters
Right now that is characterized by modest growth but a still strong labor market and only stodgy progress on inflation.
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The comments were Powell’s most explicit on the monetary policy outlook during a hearing dominated by questions from Republican lawmakers concerned that a string of bank failures in the spring would prompt the Fed to push back too h-----n the financial sector with tough capital and other rules.
Federal Reserve Chair Powell testifies before House Financial Services Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington© Thomson Reuters
“There are a number of proposals in the works. They have not been finalized,” Powell told members of the House Financial Services Committee, who questioned why the Fed might consider forcing banks to raise more capital while at the same time saying that the financial system was stable, and that the failure of institutions like Silicon Valley Bank was largely the result of poor management.
Senate Banking Committee holds hearing on Federal Reserve nominees on Capitol Hill in Washington© Thomson Reuters
Any change of capital rules or other regulations “would need to be shown to be justified,” Powell said.
Powell said any changes “will take time,” and should not impact the industry in the near term. The proposals “are still to some extent in motion…It will take quite a while to decide what to do” and years after that to implement, he said.
Nominees to three Fed board positions faced similar queries in a separate hearing in the Senate.
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On monetary policy Powell kept the focus on the central bank’s fight to lower inflation and said the process “has a long way to go.”
“Inflation has moderated somewhat since the middle of last year,” Powell said in remarks to the House panel. “Nonetheless, inflation pressures continue to run high, and the process of getting inflation back down to 2% has a long way to go.”
Though Fed officials held off on raising interest rates at their meeting last week, Powell called that an exercise in prudence, allowing time to gather more information before deciding on further rate increases that Fed policymakers feel will be necessary by the end of the year.
Powell and nominees for three Fed Board seats testified over several hours on Wednesday, laying out a set of views that could broadly shape the economic conditions facing the country during what may be an era-defining political rematch next year between incumbent D------t J-------n and Republican former President Donald Trump.
Despite the consensus on lowering inflation, the Fed is at a point where opinions about the need for and timing of additional interest rate increases may start to diverge. As it was for past presidential incumbents, how that debate gets resolved could make the difference between a benign e------n-year economy and a corrosive one.
For Biden, the success or failure of Fed policy could mean a “soft landing” of continued economic growth, lower inflation and only modestly higher unemployment, or it could force him to campaign against a backdrop of increasing joblessness, stubbornly higher prices, and punishing interest rates for anyone trying to buy a home or car or finance a business.
The Fed at its meeting last week held its benchmark interest rate steady at between 5% and 5.25%, but officials projected rates will have to increase another half percentage point by year’s end because inflation has been falling so slowly and remains more than double the Fed’s 2% target.
Source: MSN
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