Read Powell’s Full Speech From Jackson Hole Symposium

The following is a reformatted version of prepared remarks titled “Review and Outlook,” which Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is delivering Friday in Jackson Hole, Wyoming:

Four and a half years after Covid-19’s arrival, the worst of the pandemic-related economic distortions are fading. Inflation has declined significantly. The labor market is no longer overheated, and conditions are now less tight than those that prevailed before the pandemic. Supply constraints have normalized. And the balance of the risks to our two mandates has changed. Our objective has been to restore price stability while maintaining a strong labor market, avoiding the sharp increases in unemployment that characterized earlier disinflationary episodes when inflation expectations were less well anchored. While the task is not complete, we have made a good deal of progress toward that outcome.