Fed's Harker: Progress on inflation has slowed

Federal Reserve (Fed) Bank of Philadelphia President Patrick Harker added his voice to a procession of Fedspeakers on Thursday, highlighting that inflation progress has "slowed". Policymakers from the Fed are scrambling to pre-soften markets in advance of this week's upcoming Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index (PCEPI) inflation print, which is most likely headed for an upside beat as inflation pressures begin to cook once more under the hood of the US economy.

Key highlights

The policy rate remains restrictive enough to continue putting downward pressure on inflation.

The Fed watches the data, then reacts if we must.

We should let monetary policy continue to work.

The policy rate is not negatively impacting the economy.

Progress toward 2% inflation target has slowed.

I am optimistic on the economic outlook, despite the challenge of getting inflation back to target.

We should not move to act on policy in either direction based on one report covering one month of data.