What Fed Chair Powell has said about inflation, interest rates and the risk of a recession.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell appeared before the House Financial Services Commission on Thursday after witnessing the central bank’s efforts to curb inflation in the Senate on Wednesday. In particular, Powell said the recession was “certainly possible” while the Fed was trying to avoid it.

Here are some of Powell’s other comments from Wednesday’s testimony about rising prices, interest rates, and the potential for a serious economic slowdown:

• Powell said central banks could reduce rapid inflation without plunging the United States into a painful recession. “We’re not trying to provoke, and I don’t think we need to trigger a recession,” he said.

• However, the success of the so-called soft landing has been “significantly made difficult by the events of the past few months,” Powell continued, with the closure of China and the disruption of supply due to the Ukrainian war furthering prices. He said he pushed it up. ..

• And the Fed’s policies to curb demand and curb inflation are expected to hurt the economy. Central bankers themselves predict that unemployment will rise and growth will slow as higher interest rates are implemented, making mortgages, credit card debt, and business loans more expensive. “I think you see continuous progress, rapid progress towards higher rates,” Powell said.

• At the same time, Fed officials say that not trying to cool inflation, that is, not allowing inflation to continue to ratchet and settle higher, would be an even bigger problem. “This is very high inflation, which is hurting everyone,” Powell said.

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