Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell explains the decision to leave the policy rate, federal funds rate, unchanged at the range of 5.25-5.5% and responds to questions in the post-meeting press conference.

Key quotes

"We need greater confidence that inflation is moving sustainably down."

"We have confidence, but we want to see more data, continuation of good data."

"We had very strong growth last year."

"A year ago we thought we needed some economic softening."

"We want to see strong growth, strong labor market."

"We don't think we necessarily need to see weaker growth for inflation to come down."

"We want inflation to continue to come down."

"We need to see more evidence that confirms what we think we are seeing, gives us confidence we are on sustainable path to 2% inflation."

About Jerome Powell (via Federalreserve.gov)

"Jerome H. Powell first took office as Chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System on February 5, 2018, for a four-year term. He was reappointed to the office and sworn in for a second four-year term on May 23, 2022. Mr. Powell also serves as Chairman of the Federal Open Market Committee, the System's principal monetary policymaking body. Mr. Powell has served as a member of the Board of Governors since taking office on May 25, 2012, to fill an unexpired term. He was reappointed to the Board and sworn in on June 16, 2014, for a term ending January 31, 2028."