Powell: The labor market is about as tight as it was before the pandemic in 2019

  • The labor market is very strong but is coming back into better balance
  • There are signs of gradual cooling in the labor market
  • Q1 was notable for a lack of further progress on inflation, that has told us we will need to be patient
  • We expect continued growth of 2% or better with the labor market staying strong and moving further into balance
  • I expect inflation to move down to lower levels like was saw last year but I would say my confidence in that is lower than it was at the turn of the year
  • Headline PPI numbers were higher but the revisions were lower. I wouldn’t call it hot, I would call it mixed
  • Restrictive policy may take longer but I’m confident we will get inflation back to 2%
  • I don’t think it’s likely that the next move would be a rate hike
  • Current rent increases have been low for some time, but that’s now showing up in rollover leases. It will show up, the question is when.

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