The News
The head of the Federal Reserve said the US central bank is in no rush to cut interest rates further despite still-high inflation.
Jerome Powell told a Senate committee that fiscal policy was already “significantly less restrictive” than in recent years and further adjustments risked the fight against inflation, while other economic indicators remained positive, with a slowing but still strong labor market.
While ultra-low rates were the norm for over a decade after the 2008 financial crisis, as central banks tried to boost spending by offering cheap money, the pandemic and Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine led to rapid inflation, and the Fed has returned to something like the old normal, with rates in line with the 1990 to 2007 average.
