• Fed's Brainard: Will soon be appropriate to reduce the pace of its interest rates hikes

Market news

14 November 2022

Fed's Brainard: Will soon be appropriate to reduce the pace of its interest rates hikes

It will soon be appropriate for the Federal Reserve to reduce the pace of its interest rates hikes, Fed Vice Chair Lael Brainard said on Monday.

"I do think there is very strong agreement among committee members about the need to show resolve," Brainard said in an interview with Bloomberg in Washington.

"But we do have, and I think this is really important, we do have very full discussions among committee members...(about) how much restraint, for how long, what data do we look at...So I think there's healthy discussions and I do believe that it's going to be very important to have those different perspectives informing our policy deliberations."

Key comments

"Very cognizant" of potential spillovers, risks from coordinated central bank tightening.
Spillovers may create real risks for some countries, including commodity importers, those with funding mismatches.
Retail markups now are high, multiple times the increase in average hourly earnings.
Expect retail margins to fall, contribute to disinflation.
Regarding ethics, the Fed has taken very rapid action to put in place processes to catch potential issues sooner.
Focus on "broad and inclusive" employment central to fed's work.
Employment outcomes for different demographic groups now similar to where they were pre-pandemic.
Fed's mandate is "very much around" keeping inflation expectations anchored at 2%.
Fed has shown "resolve" in attacking inflation, and will continue.
Not sure whether early retirees are likely to return to the workplace or not.
"Would be great" to see a return of workers, otherwise will need to restrain demand.
Taking lags and cumulative impact of policy into account will let the fed better see how its policy is playing out.
Exactly what the rate path looks like is difficult to see right now.
Important to remember that real incomes on aggregate have fallen during high inflation.
Fed "has a 2% inflation target" and that is what policy will be designed to achieve.
Fed will be balancing considerations but is focused on achieving 2% goal.
Treasury yield curve is now above 1% in real terms.
A variety of estimates around the lag of monetary policy, from many quarters to only 2 or 3.
Very strong agreement" among committee members to show resolve against inflation.
Fed does have "very full discussions" about policy, and weight given to different data points.
Monetary tightening has become apparent in house prices flattening or falling.
Housing services in inflation not likely to peak until next year.

Her comments follow Fed's Christopher Waller who sparked a bid into the US Dollar at the start of the week when he said, Friday's inflation report was "just one data point," and that markets are "way out in front". He added ''will need to see a run of CPI reports to take a foot off the brake. ''

DXY is in a phase of accumulation for the start of the week as per the hourly chart above. 

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