Fed’s Williams: My view of economy hasn’t changed after January data

  • At some point it will be appropriate to cut rates, likely later this year
  • Things are moving in the right direction
  • Rate hike are not my base case
  • I expect consumer spending growth to slow this year
  • my own assessment is a good, significant part of what we saw on the supply side was really more of a renormalization of some of the factors that had brought productivity down earlier during the pandemic and the recovery from the pandemic
  • big drivers of neutral rate seem to basically be consistent with pre-pandemic trends
  • Full interview

Quotable:

“At some point, I think it will be appropriate to pull back on restrictive monetary policy, likely later this year. But it’s really about reading that data and looking for consistent signs that inflation is not only coming down but is moving towards that 2% longer-run goal,”

And:

  • “I think the fact that we’re seeing some of these delinquencies and other issues show that households or at least some households are facing some challenges,” he said, “which is one of the reasons why I expect consumer spending growth to slow this year.”

This article was written by Adam Button at www.forexlive.com. Source