Why Powell and PBOC Need the Right Talking Points
US and Chinese authorities are pulling in different directions. They still need to get their stories straight.
Avoiding a hard landing.
Photographer: Spencer Platt/Getty Images
For all the differences between the US and China, the managers of the world’s two largest economies share a big challenge: Successfully conveying how they will shepherd their slowing economies and avoid hard landings.
The Federal Reserve is striving to convince investors that Wednesday’s pause — after 15 months of interest-rate hikes — isn’t the end of the battle against inflation. The Fed went so far as to project a bit more tightening in coming months than economists anticipated. At one point during his press conference, Chair Jerome Powell suggested reductions may be years away. In a taste of communications trials to come, Powell also stressed this week was just about… this week. Nothing is foreordained. The upshot sounds like: “Take note of what we say, but don’t take us too literally.”