America’s central bank is moving closer to cutting interest rates following three straight months of falling price pressures, its chairman has signalled.
Jerome Powell said policymakers had greater confidence that inflation was moving back to its 2pc target, adding that officials would not wait for price rises to return to that level before cutting borrowing costs.
While Mr Powell would not be drawn on the timing of rate cuts, he said the economy was now in “much better balance”.
Speaking at the Economic Club of Washington, Mr Powell said: “Our test for quite some time has been that we wanted to have greater confidence that inflation was moving sustainably down towards our 2pc target. And what increases that confidence in that, is more good inflation data. And lately, here we have been getting some of that.”
The Fed’s preferred measure of…
