Powell: ‘No guarantee’ Fed can tame inflation

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell hopes the Fed can achieve a 'soft landing' by raising interest rates just enough to slow the economy without causing a recession or raising the unemployment rate. But that is going to be very difficult, he said.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said “no one is declaring victory” over the stubbornly high inflation rates, but things are definitely looking up. (Douglas Christian/Zuma Press/TNS)

by Associated Press

Published: June 29, 2022

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell hopes the Fed can achieve a ‘soft landing’ by raising interest rates just enough to slow the economy without causing a recession or raising the unemployment rate. But that is going to be very difficult, he said.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said there’s “no guarantee’’ the central bank can tame runaway inflation without hurting the job market.

Speaking Wednesday at a European Central Bank forum in Sintra, Portugal, Powell repeated his hope that the Fed can achieve a so-called soft landing — raising interest rates just enough to slow the economy and rein in surging consumer prices without causing a recession and sharply raising the unemployment rate.

“We believe we can do that. That is our aim,’’ he said. But the Russian invasion of Ukraine, he said, had made the job more difficult by disrupting commerce and driving up the price of food, energy and chemicals.

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