Despite recent reports finding that the U.S. economy remains strong and inflation rose at the beginning of 2024, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said that he still expects a reduction in the benchmark interest rate later this year.
“The recent data do not … materially change the overall picture,” Powell said, “which continues to be one of solid growth, a strong but rebalancing labor market, and inflation moving down toward 2% on a sometimes bumpy path.”
During his speech Wednesday at Stanford University, Powell also discredited any claims that the decision to lower interest rates will be influenced by the upcoming presidential election. The Fed will make any decisions on interest rates during their meetings in July and September.
Annual inflation rose in February to 2.5%, though it’s significantly lower than the previous high of 7.1%. Still, it hasn’t yet gone down to the Fed’s target 2% that might spur the agency to start making cuts.
