U.S. Central Bank (Fed) Vice President Lael Brainard is considering a slowdown in Fed rate hikes “soon”, she said on Monday, stressing however that the institution should not again cease these raisings.
“I think it will soon be appropriate to move towards a slower pace” of rate hikes, the official said in a video interview with Bloomberg.
However, it is not yet a question, according to her, of ceasing to raise its key rate: “we still have work to do on rate hikes”.
To combat the sharp rise in consumer prices in the United States, the Fed has been gradually raising its key rate since March. This drives up interest rates for households and businesses, and should slow down consumption, and therefore ease the pressure on prices.
Faced with persistent inflation, the key rate has been raised at a faster pace since June, with four very large increases in a row of three-quarters of a percentage point each, when the usual increase is a quarter point.
It is now in the range of 3.75% to 4.00%, its highest level since January 2008.
Inflation, however, showed encouraging signs in October, slowing to 7.7% year on year from 8.2% in September, which is “reassuring”, according to the Fed Vice-Chair.
Above all, so-called core inflation, i.e. excluding food and energy, the prices of which had soared with the war in Ukraine, also slowed in October, which suggests that pressure is easing on the supply chain.
“We are finally seeing inflation on goods starting to turn around,” said Lael Brainard.
The next meeting of the Fed’s monetary policy committee, the institution’s decision-making body, will take place on December 13 and 14.