- by cnn
- 20 Apr 2024
An interest rate hike later this month was already in the cards for the Federal Reserve. But after the June jobs report, the timing of a second hike remains unclear.
Job gains remain robust, wage growth is still going strong, and unemployment continues to hover near historic lows. That means the job market is still fueling demand in the economy, which the Fed has been trying to slow through rate hikes. And Fed officials have made it clear they think the central bank still has more work to do to bring down inflation, which is still running well above the 2% goal.
Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago President Austan Goolsbee, a voting member of the Fed committee that decides interest rates, said in an interview Friday that he sees "a decent chance of further tightening down the pipeline" and that inflation "needs to come down more."
Other Fed officials have struck a similarly hawkish tone on inflation, hinting strongly at a hike in July.
"I remain very concerned about whether inflation will return to target in a sustainable and timely way," said Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Lorie Logan on Thursday during a meeting hosted by the Central Bank Research Association. "I think more restrictive monetary policy will be needed to achieve the Federal Open Market Committee's goals of stable prices and maximum employment."
Fed officials voted last month to hold the key federal funds rate steady at a range of 5-5.25% to reassess the economy after a string of 10 consecutive rate hikes and to monitor the effects of bank stresses in the spring, according to minutes from that meeting released Wednesday.
"We can take some time and assess and collect more information and then be able to act, knowing that we also communicated through our projections that we don't think we're done, based on what we know," said New York Fed President John Williams Wednesday during a moderated discussion in New York. "And obviously we're absolutely committed to achieving our 2% inflation goal."
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