A year after the first rate hike, the Fed still has a long way to go in the fight against inflation

In this month last year, the Federal Reserve spoke about its first attack against inflation, this has been moving around in the market creating havoc in the U.S. economy for at least the previous year.

After a year of the inflation fight in short things are a bit fine, but not amazing.

The hikes of rates appeared to have put an end to some of the inflation surges that led to some tightening of policy.

But the fact that the Fed was too late made questions arise.

There is an increase in questions about how long it would take the central bank to get back to its 2% inflation standard.

“They have a ways to go,” Quincy Krosby said. “It took them a long time to acknowledge that inflation was stickier than they initially assessed.”

Feds officials stuck to the narrative that inflation was not permanent and would leave on its own; meanwhile prices soared, wages increased but failed to keep up and central bankers left with a public impression that they didn’t do anything while the economic crisis raged.

The Gallup poll showed that just 37% of the public had a favorable opinion of the Fed, which was one of the trusted agencies.

“This is not to criticize them, but to understand: They do not know more about inflation than the average consumer. That’s important,” Krosby said. “It’s just that, it’s their job to know. And that’s where the criticism comes in.”

Some staggered inflation data brought in criticism.

Energy prices at one point during last summer increased up to more than 41% in 12 months. Food inflation was over 11%. Prices of other individual items such as eggs, airline fares, and pet food also shot up to peaks.

Powell and a few other policymakers acknowledged that they were slow in recognizing the pressure of inflation but they are saying that they are acting appropriately now.

Fed chairman Jerome Powell recently said that his colleagues and he are taking “forceful steps” to bring down inflation.

“It would be very premature to declare victory or to think that we’ve got this,” Powell added.

“Our goal of the course is to bring inflation down”

It is lately observed that the consumer price index is heading in the correct direction. The index recently showed that the inflation rate decreased to 6.4% from 9% last year.

The consumption expenditures price index which is observed closely by the Feds also decreased to 5.4% annually and is getting close to the consumer price index.

Another big fear in the market is that the rate hikes by the Fed may cause a recession 

Which has set a benchmark overnight with a rate in the range of 4.5% and 4.75%. Markets figure that the Fed will increase the range from 5.25% to 5.5%.

“If we don’t get a recession, we’re going to be at a 6% funds rate by the end of this year,” he said.

“If we do get recession… we’ll be at a 3% funds rate by the end.”

So far, the recession does not look like a very big threat. Growth of 2.3% for the first quarter has been tracked as the gross domestic product of the Atlanta Fed, and 2.7% in the 4th quarter.

The job market has been very stable. The unemployment rate was recorded as 3.4% which is the lowest since 1953.

- Published By Team Nation Press News