Powell at Macroeconomics & Monetary Policy Conference: Top takeaways

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell spoke on Friday, March 29, at the Macroeconomics and Monetary Policy Conference at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. Here are the top takeaways. PCE report (00:00:03) The personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index data was released on Friday, March 29. Regarding the latest report, Powell said, "The report that came out this morning is pretty much in line with our expectations. Core PCE is at 2.8% on a 12-month basis, headline is at 2.5%, that's what we were expecting. And it's good to see something coming in in line with expectations." Possibility of future rate cuts (00:00:21) "So what we've said is we don't see it as likely to be appropriate that we would begin to reduce interest rates until the Federal Open Market committee is confident that inflation is moving down to 2% on a sustained basis," Powell explained. "And what do we need to get that confidence? It's just more good inflation readings like the ones we were getting last year." State of the economy (00:00:43) "The economy is strong, we see very strong growth. We had growth for last year over 3%," Powell said. "We don't need to be in a hurry to cut. It means we can wait and become more confident that inflation is coming down to 2% on a sustainable basis." Expectations for interest rates (00:01:06) "My own expectation is I don't think rates will go back down to the very, very low levels they were at before the pandemic, but where they will settle out it's hard to say," Powell explained. "This economy doesn't feel like it's suffering."