Jerome Powell: Fed united in cutting rates this year

Timing brings risks

Chair of the US Federal Reserve Jerome Powell has said that almost every member of the central bank’s Open Market Committee “believes that it will be appropriate for us to reduce interest rates this year”, once it sees more “good data”.

In an interview on CBS' 60 Minutes, Powell said that although the US had a "strong" economy and labour market, and inflation was "already coming down", the bank wanted to ensure the latter was moving in a "sustainable" way towards its 2% target. Last week (1 February), the Fed opted to hold interest rates at 5.25%-5.5%, meeting expectations. Federal Reserve holds rates steady as Jerome Powell dampens March cut hopes Markets had been optimistic of interest rate cuts early in 2024, after Powell took a more dovish monetary policy tone at the end of last year, but the chair tempered ex...