Fed’s Goolsbee: Rates can come down, but need to see services inflation progress

Federal Reserve (Fed) Bank of Chicago President Austan Goolsbee noted on Friday during an interview with Yahoo Finance that although interest rates are poised to come down further, moves on policy rates are contingent on further taming of services inflation.

Key highlights

• CPI data had some encouraging bits, and some concerns.
• We’re still seeing pretty-high services inflation.
• I hope we’ve seen the peak impact of tariffs.
• Strong January job data hopefully a sign of stability. Job market has been steady and only modest cooling.
• I think interest rates can still go down a fair bit more.
• We just need to see the progress on inflation.
• Rates can still go down but need to see progress on inflation.
• The strongest thing in the economy is the US consumer.
• Consumers should hold on if job market stable and inflation eases.
• I’m still wary. Services inflation is not tamed.
• Services inflation well above target is danger sign. I want to get more information before frontloading cuts.
• I don’t know how restrictive Fed policy is. I still think it would’ve been wiser in December to wait.
• We need to see improvement in inflation. I expect to see progress.
• If we’re at 2% inflation, we can have several more cuts.