Fed’s Bostic: Maybe only one rate cut this year

Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic stated in a BloombergTV interview today that it will take time before the Fed is confident that inflation will return to 2%. He reiterated his stance that “nothing has changed” regarding his view that perhaps only one rate cut will be necessary this year.

He noted that inflation data for the first part of the year has been “very bumpy,” reflecting a slow but gradual slowdown in economic activity. Bostic mentioned that business leaders report a gradual slowdown in their operations, with pricing power weakening.

“I do think that our new steady state is likely to be higher than what people have known over the last decade — maybe back to where we were in the 1990s and 2000s, but we’ll just have to see,” Bostic added, suggesting a shift in the long-term inflation outlook compared to recent years.