Fed Chair Powell on Inflation: ‘In the End, It Will Be Transitory and People Need to Have Faith in the Central Bank’

EXCERPT:

POWELL: “Well, as I’ve said before, we do expect that we will be able to see whether the narrative we're feeling turns out to be right. I would say we'd be able to see that — it won't take forever for us to be able to see that. And if we do see that inflation expectations are moving up, or inflation is on a path to remain well above our goals and risk of sending us off on a period of high inflation, then we will use our tools to guide inflation back down to two percent. So in the end, it's not going to be — in the end, it will be transitory and people need to have faith in the Central Bank that we will do that. But we won't do it just because — honestly, it would honestly be a mistake to do it at a time when we really do believe, and virtually all forecasters do believe that these things will come down of their own accord as the economy reopens. It would be a mistake to act prematurely. We really have to weigh the risks of the two things and at a certain point the risks may flip, but right now the risks to me are clear.”