Powell: Hard to talk about future rate hikes right now
United States Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell remarked at a press conference on Wednesday that raising the benchmark interest rate by 75 basis points is "not something" the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) is "actively considering."
"Assuming that the economic and financial conditions evolve in ways that are consistent with our expectations, there is a broad sense in the committee that an additional 50 basis points increase should be on the table for the next couple of meetings," he told reporters. "It's a very difficult environment to try to give forward guidance sixty, ninety days in advance. There are so many things that could happen in the economy around the world."
"One-month reading [on inflation] doesn't tell us much. We'd wanna see evidence that inflation is moving in a direction that is giving us more comfort," Powell concluded.