Federal Reserve press conference, 2023-07-26 — Chair Jerome Powell

Question (Steve Liesman, CNBC): If I could just briefly follow up on something you said there: You said the data in the intermeeting period, it probably came in in line with expectations. Does that mean there’s unlikely to have been a change in the overwhelming outlook of the Committee that two more hikes are necessary?
Answer: I’m just going to go back to what I said. We, we—you know, that’s the question. We have eight weeks now until the September meeting, and all that data that I recited, we’re going to be looking at all that and making that assessment then. And it really—we did have the one good reading, and, of course, we welcome that. But it’s just one reading, as everybody knows. And, and, you know, we’ve seen—we’ve seen this before in the data. Many forecasts call for, for rates—for, for inflation to remain low, but we just don’t know that until we see the data. So we’ll be focusing on that.

Question (Michael McKee, Bloomberg): Well, do you think under current conditions you are restrictive enough unless something changes?
Answer: Well, I think—we think, you know, today’s rate hike was appropriate, and I think we’re going to be looking at the incoming data to inform our decision at the next meeting about, is the incoming data telling us that we need to do more? And if it does tell us that—collectively, if that’s our view—then we will do more.

Question (Evan Ryser, MNI): Evan Ryser, Market News International. Thank you, Chair Powell. Financial conditions have been loosening at a fairly steady clip in recent weeks—the dollar, the stock market, et cetera. What does that mean for the Fed and being sure that inflation will come down to target?
Answer: So we monitor, of course, financial conditions, broad financial conditions. You’re right. It’s the dollar and equities, but—and, you know, we’re, of course, very focused on rates and our own policy. You know, we will—we’re going to use our policy tools to—working through financial conditions—to get inflation under control The implication is, you know, we will do what it takes to get inflation down, and in principle, that, that could mean that if financial conditions get looser, we have to do more. But what tends to happen, though, is, financial conditions get in and out of alignment with what we’re doing, and, and, ultimately, over time, we get where we need to go.