Washington DC April 23 2022: A half-point interest rate increase “will be on the table” when the Federal Reserve meets on May 3-4 to approve the next in what are expected to be a series of rate increases this year, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said Thursday in comments that pointed to an aggressive set of Fed actions ahead.
With inflation running roughly three times the Fed’s 2% target, “it is appropriate to be moving a little more quickly,” Powell said in a discussion of the global economy at the meetings of the International Monetary Fund. “Fifty basis points will be on the table for the May meeting.”
In likely his last public remarks before the Fed’s next session, Powell also said he felt investors currently anticipating a series of half-point hikes were “reacting appropriately, generally,” to the Fed’s emerging fight against rising prices.
His comments appeared to pin down an expected rate path much steeper than projected at the Fed’s March meeting, when policymakers at the median anticipated the target overnight federal funds rate would be increased to 1.9% by year’s end.
