Richmond Federal Reserve President Thomas Barkin said on Tuesday that this month's inflation reading was very encouraging and that he believes the U.S. is clearly on the back side of inflation.
However, the official noted that it is hard to know how much signal to take from inflation last year, or this quarter, or the most recent couple of weeks. He also added that he didn't get more confidence in the first quarter this year about inflation, pointing to stubborn price pressures in services categories. The Richmond Fed president stressed that he needs to see sustainment and broadening in disinflation to give him confidence that inflation is heading to 2%.
Barkin also said that the U.S. labour market is heading in the right direction, noting that the hiring rate has dropped a lot, but admitted that consumer spending is still solid. The dynamic underpinning spending is a strong jobs market and a stock market at record levels, he added.