Fed’s Powell downplays potential for a rate hike despite higher price pressures

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER
AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Tuesday that the central bank is unlikely to raise its key interest rate in response to signs of stubborn inflation and underscored his view that price increases would soon start to cool again. Yet Powell, during a panel discussion in Amsterdam, said his confidence that inflation will ease “is not as high as it was” because price increases have been persistently hot in the first three months of this year. Powell stressed that the Fed’s preferred approach was to keep its benchmark rate at its current two-decade peak rather than increase it.