Jerome Powell: Higher than Expected Inflation Has Told Us Is that We’ll Need To Be Patient and Let Restrictive Policy Do Its Work

EXCERPT:

POWELL: “We had higher readings in the first quarter and higher than we expected. We did not expect this to be a smooth road, but these were higher than I think anybody expected, and so what that has told us is that we’ll need to be patient and let restrictive policy do its work. If I turn to the outlook just for a second, I would say we expect continued growth, 2% or better. We expect the labor market to continue to be strong, but to move further and further into balance, and I expect that inflation will move back down on a monthly level, on a monthly basis, to levers that were more like the lower readings we’re having last year. I would say my confidence in that is not as high as it was, having seen these readings in the first three months of the year. So, we’re just going to have to see where the inflation data fall out, and I’ll stop there with the economy."