San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank President Mary Daly said on Tuesday that the U.S. central bank is “resolute” about bringing down high inflation but also wants to do so “as gently as possible” so as not to drive the economy into a downturn.
It is important, Daly said at a symposium held jointly with the Monetary Authority of Singapore, “to navigate through this high inflation environment as carefully as we can, so that we don’t leave longer term damage to our labor market.”
The Fed has been aggressively raising interest rates to bring down inflation that is more than three times its 2 percent target. Last week’s rate rise of 75 basis points was the central bank’s third straight increase of that size, and it signaled it would likely lift the policy rate—now in the 3 percent–3.25 percent range—to 4.4 percent by year-end and to 4.6 percent next year….