By Michael S. Derby
(Reuters) -Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City President Jeffrey Schmid said on Thursday that last week’s central bank interest-rate cut was needed to help ensure that the job market remains in a good place.
While the economy is currently in a pretty good spot relative to the Fed’s inflation and job goals, “some recent data suggests a growing risk that the labor market may weaken more substantially or abruptly than I had been anticipating,” Schmid said in the text of a speech prepared for a gathering of the Mid-Sized Bank Coalition of America in Dallas.
“As such, I viewed the 25-basis-point cut in the policy rate last week as a reasonable risk-management strategy as the Fed balances its inflation objective with some heightened concern over the health of the labor market,” Schmid said.
The official’s comments were his first public remarks since last week’s interest-rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee meeting. At that gathering Schmid joined with his colleagues and voted in favor of a quarter-percentage-point interest-rate cut, leaving the central bank’s rate target range at between 4% and 4.25%.
Fed officials are still worried that inflation pressures remain too high relative to their 2% target and that those pressures could get worse due to President Donald Trump’s trade tariff surge. But they’ve grown more worried about the state of the labor market and are using monetary policy to help offset risks there.
Speaking on Tuesday, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said that the Fed is now facing an “unusual” situation with risks to both its job and inflation mandates that is tilting its focus toward the former goal. For most of this year, “our policy rate has been tight because inflation has been above our target, but the labor market was very solid,” but going into the summer “the labor market has softened,” and cutting rates is aimed at preventing this situation from getting worse.
The Fed also penciled in additional rate cuts at the meeting and expects to close out the year with its interest rate target around 3.50% to 3.75%.
The meeting also saw newly installed Fed Governor Stephen Miran vote in favor of a half-percentage-point increase. Fed officials are actively debating how quickly they need to cut rates, with some arguing for a go-slow approach amid ongoing inflation worries, while others believe the Fed needs to act aggressively to ensure that the labor market does not lose too much ground.
In his remarks, Schmid said, “My view is that inflation remains too high while the labor market, though cooling, still remains largely in balance.” Moving monetary policy to an “only slightly restrictive” stance is the right place to be while the Fed manages risks to its two mandates.
Schmid did not say where he thinks Fed interest rate policy is heading, noting, “I will continue to take a data-dependent approach to any further adjustments in the policy rate.”
Schmid also said in his remarks that financial supervision work is important for the central bank and helps inform its broader mission.
“Each of our mission areas — supervision, monetary policy, liquidity provisioning, and the robustness of the payments system — depends on the others to function effectively and cohesively,” the official said.
(Reporting by Michael S. Derby; Editing by Mark Porter)
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