Austan Goolsbee, president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, said a rate cut this fall is not “a certainty.”
“I don’t think it’s a certainty, and, you know, I don’t like having my hands tied in advance when there’s a ton of data and the entire committee has had a chance to weigh in and it’s a committee decision,” Goolsbee said on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” when asked whether he was “certain” the Fed would cut interest rates.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell suggested last month that the central bank could cut interest rates “as early as” September if inflation and the job market continue to cool. The Labor Department reported last week that annual inflation fell below 3% for the first time since March 2021.
The Federal Open Market Committee raised interest rates to a range of 5.25% to 5.5% last July, and since then, the committee has voted to keep rates in that current range at each meeting.
Goolsby said the committee has emphasized what economic conditions would be necessary for interest rates to be reduced.
“We have been clear for some time about what economic conditions would be appropriate to lower interest rates or keep interest rates unchanged. And while we set interest rates at higher levels over a year ago because we were fighting inflation, I believe the economic conditions today are very different from when we set interest rates at these levels,” he added.
