Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said the outlook for inflation and employment support further gradual interest-rate increases, while the lack of a spike in wage gains shows the labor market is “not excessively tight.”
“We will continue to aim for 2 percent inflation and for a sustained economic expansion with a strong labor market,” Powell said Friday in his first speech since becoming chairman in February. “As long as the economy continues broadly on its current path, further gradual increases in the federal funds rate will best promote these goals,” he told the The Economic Club of Chicago.
