(Washington) A US Federal Reserve (Fed) official said on Monday that another pause in rate hikes at the next meeting in September is possible if the country’s economy continues to develop positively.
If economic data to be released by the September 19-20 meeting shows that inflation continues to moderate and economic activity and employment remain strong, “I think everyone will be comfortable to stay where we are,” Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee said in an interview on Yahoo! finance.
The Fed on Wednesday raised rates for the 11th time since March 2022, after a break at its previous meeting in mid-June. Its main policy rate is now in a range of 5.25 to 5.50%.
Austan Goolsbee, who in 2023 has rotating voting rights in the Monetary Policy Committee (FOMC), the decision-making body of the Fed, however warned that no decision is certain at this stage: “Nothing is excluded, nothing is assured. We don’t tie our hands. »
“I haven’t decided yet what should happen in September,” he added.
Austan Goolsbee praised the fact that the Fed has so far succeeded in bringing down inflation without creating significant damage to the economy.
“Our goal is to stay on what I call the golden path, which is to reduce inflation without causing a major recession. And that would be a triumph for the Fed […]. We have never been able to bring inflation down as much as we have so far without a recession,” he said.
According to him, achieving this goal “is certainly a possibility at this stage”.
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell kept all options open Wednesday at his press conference after the FOMC meeting.
“It is possible that we will raise rates again at the September meeting if the data warrants it. […] We may choose to stay on the same level,” he said.
But the recession, which seemed inevitable a few months ago, now seems to be avoidable. Fed economists have just removed this risk from their economic forecasts, however anticipating “a significant slowdown in growth”, according to Jerome Powell.