- Fed may be at or near time to pause rate hikes
- Inflation too high but sees promising signs of moderation
- Watching a wide array of data
- Banking sector likely to weigh on demand
This is a bit of a pushback from the doves. The battle lines are clear now though with either one more hike in June/July or none.
Key excerpt:
While inflation is still too high, there are some promising signs of moderation. I believe we may be at, or near, the point where monetary policy can pause raising interest rates. This will provide an opportunity to more fully assess the impact of the actions taken to date and the general tightening of credit conditions on economic activity. However, I also believe it is important to make each policy decision based on a wholistic assessment of information available at the time – and the next policy meeting will be in mid-June. In the meantime, we continue to monitor a wide range of data – about price developments, labor markets, financial conditions and more – to evaluate how the economy is doing.