LIVE: FED Chair Jerome Powell is Speaking – Here Are All The Must-Know Headlines

After the FED leaves interest rates constant, Chairman Jerome Powell reads the text he prepared in advance on live broadcast and answers journalists’ questions.

Here are the important highlights from Powell’s press conference:

• The policy has moved into restrictive territory.
• The path forward is unclear.
• Inflation has decreased but is still very high.
• We are fully committed to returning inflation to 2%.
• We have tightened monetary policy significantly.
• We will base our future decisions on data integrity, the changing landscape, and looming risks.
• The full effects of the tightening are probably not yet felt.
• Growth in economic activities has slowed significantly.
• Nominal growth in wages appears to be slowing.
• High interest rates also put pressure on businesses’ fixed investments.
• The labor market remains tight but is coming into better balance.
• The committee expects the softening in the labor market to continue.
• The low inflation figures in recent months are pleasing.
• We estimate that core inflation increased by 3.1% in the 12-month period ending in November.
• We predict that it will take some time for inflation to reach 2%.
• While we believe our policy rate is likely near its peak for this cycle, we have encountered surprises in the past.
• We are ready to tighten the policy further if appropriate.
• We will keep policy restrictive until we are confident that we are on the path to 2% inflation.
• Policy makers do not want to take the possibility of further interest rate hikes off the table.

The article will be updated throughout Powell’s speech…

As one of the FED’s fastest responses to rising inflation, the institution has increased the policy rate by 5.25 points since March 2022, and has kept the policy rate constant since July as the inflation target approaches.

*This is not investment advice.

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