Summary:
13:30 (US) Fed Chair Powell: We have a long way to go in restoring price stability; Time for moderating hikes could come as soon as Dec meeting
- Reiterates likely need to hold policy in restrictive territory for some time; history cautions strongly against prematurely loosening policy
- Need to see more evidence of inflation falling; Inflation remains far too high
- Moderation in labor demand growth will be required to restore labor market balance
- Reiterates that seems likely rates must ultimately go somewhat higher than policymakers thought in September; Still considerable uncertainty over where rates will peak
- We have made substantial progress toward sufficiently restrictive policy, but still more ground to cover
- For wage growth to be sustainable, it needs to be consistent with 2% inflation
- In housing market seeing new lease inflation falling which is expected to bring down housing services inflation later in 2023
- Moderation of labor demand growth will be required to restore balance to labor market, and have only seen tentative signs of that so far
- Wage growth has also shown only tentative signs of returning to balance
- Full effects of our rapid tightening have yet to be felt which supports moderating pace of rate hikes