"Fed's megaphone": Federal Reserve officials expect a longer wait for interest rate cuts

ChainCatcher news, "Fed mouthpiece" Nick Timiraos wrote that Federal Reserve officials concluded in their recent meeting that they need to keep interest rates at current levels for a longer time than previously expected.

Last month, U.S. inflation data disappointed for the third consecutive month. According to the latest meeting minutes, although officials still believe that rates are high enough to suppress economic activity and reduce inflation, they hinted that they are less certain about the degree of policy restrictiveness. An unspecified number of officials mentioned that if inflation risks make tightening policy reasonable, they would be willing to tighten policy further. In the second half of last year, price pressures noticeably eased, and Fed officials hinted in March that if there were one or two more months of moderate inflation, they might be ready to start cutting rates.

However, a series of data from the first quarter shows that price pressures in the economy are heating up, and unless the labor market unexpectedly weakens, the Fed has been forced to shelve any considerations of starting to cut rates in the coming months.