The U.S. economy continues to show “sustained improvement” from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic and ongoing job market gains, but inflation has “increased notably in recent months,” Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said in prepared testimony for a congressional hearing on Tuesday.
Powell did not go into detail in his prepared remarks on current monetary policy, or on the possibility the U.S. central bank may have to speed up its plans to pull back on some support for the economy because of the faster rise in prices.
In his remarks, which were released by the Fed late Monday afternoon, Powell said he regards the current jump in inflation, in fact, as likely to fade.
He also restated his concern that the recovery remained uneven, with joblessness still hitting lower-wage workers, Blacks and Hispanics the hardest. “We at the Fed will do everything we can to support the economy for as long as it takes to complete the recovery,” Powell said.
