Collins, speaking to Reuters after the release of a report showing a key gauge of inflationary pressures eased last month, cautioned that she doesn’t yet believe the core thrust of price pressures had cooled enough to change the monetary policy outlook.
“While it is good news that the new data is not as elevated” as the last couple of months, amid some revisions downward in past data, “we still haven’t made that much progress” on bringing inflation back to the 2% target, Collins said in the interview. “Where I am right now is, it doesn’t really change how I’ve been thinking about where we are and what we have left to do” on the monetary policy front.
The Commerce Department earlier on Friday reported that the personal consumption expenditures price index rose 5% on a year-over-year basis in February, down from 5.3% in January. Excluding food and energy components, the index was up 4.6% over the same period, compared to a rise of 4.7% in January….
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