The Federal Reserve should be prudent in changing interest rates; Boston Fed President Susan Collins said Thursday, the U.S. economic situation is uncertain.
Collins said in a moderated discussion sponsored by the Insurance Women’s Investment Network, 100 Women in Finance and Wellington Management, “I strongly believed at the meeting that we had last week that holding our rate steady was an appropriate policy stance and, looking forward, I would expect holding it steady for a longer time is likely to be appropriate.”
Collins remarked that compared to last year, the economic picture is far more hazy in recent weeks.
She said it is obvious the tariffs imposed by the White House would raise near-term inflation. Although that rise might be temporary, there are issues regarding when prices rise would then start to soften.
Simultaneously, slower growth resulting from companies’ “wait-and-see” posture could be caused by
Remember that economic progress was strong at the beginning of the year, the Boston Fed president—a voting member of the Fed’s interest-rate committee this year—said.
She said it was premature to draw too much interpretation from polls displaying declining consumer and corporate confidence.
“Still very much here,” Collins remarked, is the fundamental strength of the economy. People should be reminded of this as, she pointed out, too much emphasis on current weak data could initiate a self-fulfilling downhill trend.
