Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller said he needs to see “several more” months of good inflation figures to begin interest-rate cuts, though recent data suggest progress has likely resumed.
Waller said April consumer price figures, which showed a key gauge of underlying inflation slowed for the first time in six months, were a sign price pressures are not accelerating. He also noted softer retail sales in the month and signs of slowing in the labor market.
“The latest CPI data was a reassuring signal that inflation is not accelerating and data on spending and the labor market suggest to me that monetary policy is at an appropriate setting to put downward pressure on inflation,” Waller said in prepared remarks Tuesday at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
Nonetheless, he said the recent data on prices showed only modest progress toward the central bank’s 2% inflation goal.
“If I were still a professor and had to assign a grade to this inflation report, it would be a C+ — far from failing but not stellar either,” he said.
“In the absence of a significant weakening in the labor market, I need to see several more months of good inflation data before I would be comfortable supporting an easing in the stance of monetary policy,” he added.
The Fed governor said that further rate increases are “probably unnecessary.”
Waller is among Fed officials who have recently emphasized the central bank may need to hold rates steady for longer than previously thought. Policymakers haven’t adjusted the benchmark interest rate — now at a 23-year high — since July.
While the labor market and economic growth have moderated, the US economy overall remains on solid footing. Employers have added 246,000 jobs on average each month this year, and unemployment, at 3.9%, is low. Fed officials broadly have cited the economy’s performance to make the case they can afford to be patient before implementing rate cuts.
“With the labor market as strong as it is, my focus remains bringing inflation down toward” the Fed’s goal, Waller said.
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