Federal Reserve press conference, 2025-07-30 — Chair Jerome Powell

Question (Christopher Rugaber, Associated Press): Hi, Chair Powell. Thank you. Well, can you give us a little more about, what kind of economic data does the Fed need to see before you’ll be ready to cut? I mean, do you need inflation back nearly to target? Are there other things in the pricing that you look for? Do you need to see weakening in the job market? What kind of things are you looking for?
Answer: I mean, ultimately, it’s—it could be any—it could be any of those things. Right? But, but, you know, if you saw that the risks to the two goals were moving into balance, if they were fully in balance, that would imply that you should move toward a more—a more neutral stance of policy. This is—this is the special situation we’re in, which is, we have two-sided risk, risk to both of our goals. When we paused, inflation was above target, and the labor market was pretty good. So, so, you know, that was a time when policy—policy was restrictive when we paused. And to be restrictive is to be—to be supporting a return to our inflation target, right? So as the two targets get back into balance, you would—you would think you’d move in, in, in a way closer to neutral and that the next—the next steps that we take are likely to be in that direction. What will it take? You know, it’ll just take—it’ll be the totality of the evidence. As I mentioned, there’s quite a lot of data coming in, which, before the next meeting, will it be dispositive of that? I—you know, it’s really hard to say. We don’t make those decisions right now. So we’ll have to see.