Federal Reserve press conference, 2025-06-18 — Chair Jerome Powell

Question (Michael McKee, Bloomberg): I need to ask—assuming you are not reappointed, would you stay on as Governor when your term as Chair ends?
Answer: I’m—I’m not thinking about that. I’m thinking about this.

Question (Kelly O’Grady, nan): My follow-up to that—I think consumers—right?—were looking for relief on rates when it comes to mortgages—car loans. Small businesses want to take out more manageable loans. When you look at the cumulative inflation over the past five years, prices have risen over 20 percent—it’s been a rough road. So what is the tipping point, then, for the wait-and-see approach in terms of how much it’s going to help versus when it hurts the American consumer?
Answer: Well, I mean, we’re trying to restore price—the best thing we can do for the—for the public that we serve is restore price stability. If we can, and we will, restore price stability, meaning 2 percent inflation on a durable, sustainable basis—that and also maximum employment—and if we, we restore those things, that’s the best thing. And that is our goal. The best thing we can do for the American people—for, for households and businesses— that is the ultimate thing that we can deliver. And they can make their decisions without having to think about inflation all the time. So, in the meantime, we have to keep rates high to keep—to get inflation all the way down. They’re not very high—let’s be honest. I would say policy is modestly or moderately—probably modestly now—restrictive. If you look at the economy, it’s not performing as though it were performing under very strict monetary policy—very restrictive monetary policy. So I would say probably modestly restrictive—and so what it will take is, is confidence that inflation is coming down. Now, I would say, without tariffs, that confidence would be building because if you—if you see what’s happening with nonhousing services and housing services, which are the other two big pieces other than goods, those are coming down really nicely now. So I think we have to learn a little more about, about tariffs. I don’t know—I don’t know what the right way for us to react will be. I think it’s hard to know with, with any confidence how we should react until we see, really, the size of the effects—then we can start to make a better judgment. So that’s what we’re doing, and I think we can—we can take the time to do that, because unemployment is 4.2 percent. Wages are moving up. Real wages are moving up at a—at a healthy clip now. And inflation is, you know—2.3 percent headline inflation over a 12-month basis. So it’s a good economy, and a solid economy with decent growth.