Federal Reserve Chairman Powell acknowledged on Tuesday that the first quarter of 2024 was notable for a lack of further progress on inflation. According to him, that has told the policymakers they will need to be patient.
The Fed's chief added that he expects inflation to move down to lower levels like was saw last year but noted that he would say his confidence in that is lower than it was at the turn of the year.
Powell also admitted that today's headline PPI numbers for April were higher, while the revisions to the March readings were lower. "I wouldn't call it hot, I would call it mixed," he added.
Regarding the U.S. labour market, the boss of the U.S. central bank said it is about as tight as it was before the pandemic in 2019 but noted that it is coming back into better balance.
Powell also stated that restrictive policy may take longer, but he is confident they will get inflation back to 2%. In addition, he reiterated that he does not think it's likely that the next move would be a rate hike.