FEDERAL Reserve chair Jerome Powell is scheduled to deliver remarks on the economic outlook next Friday (Aug 23), the first full day of the Kansas City Fed’s annual economic symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
The annual gathering of global central bankers offers Powell a chance to give an updated assessment of the US economic trajectory and the outlook for monetary policy, midway between the central bank’s July and September policymaking meetings. Last month he said that if inflation and the labour market continues to cool, an interest rate cut could be on the table at the Fed’s next meeting.
The Fed has held its policy rate in the 5.25 per cent to 5.5 per cent range for more than a year now to slow economic growth and keep downward pressure on inflation.
Weak job-market data at the start of this month fuelled concern among investors that the Fed had left policy restrictive for too long, and that it would need to chop rates an aggressive half a percentage point in September, if not before, to counter a looming recession.
Recent data, including a strong retail sales report earlier Thursday, has been more encouraging, suggesting inflation is indeed receding but the economy is far from collapsing. Investors now expect the Fed to start reducing borrowing costs by a more-usual quarter of a percentage point next month. REUTERS
