Speech

Looking Beyond Recent Data

Abstract: I am still looking to be convinced, both that demand is settling and that any weakness is feeding through to inflation. I don’t like depending solely on data. That’s why I’ve made it my priority to be on the ground every week in the hopes of understanding the economy better. There is somewhat of a disconnect between the data and what I hear on the ground. I see an economy that is much further along the path to demand normalization than much of the data would tell you. But the question is how much of this softening is feeding through to inflation. The path for inflation isn’t yet clear. That’s why I supported our decision at our last meeting to keep rates steady and wait for more information. We have time to see if we have done enough, or whether there’s more work to do.

Bibliographic Information

Provider: Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond

Part of Series: Speech

Publication Date: 2023-10-17