Boston Fed President Susan Collins struck a note of caution and restraint in todays remarks, suggesting that while policy rates may be reaching their peak, further tightening could still be on the table, dependent on “holistic data assessment.”
“This phase of our policy cycle requires patience, and holistic data assessment, while we stay the course,” Collins asserted.
Collins emphasized the challenge of discerning meaningful trends in economic data, cautioning that “it is difficult to extract the signal from the noise.”
“If the improvement is fleeting, further tightening could be warranted,” she warned.
Most notably, Collins was reluctant to embrace the notion that recent improvements in economic indicators necessarily signal a taming of inflationary pressures.
“There are promising developments, but given the continued strength in demand, my view is that it is just too early to take the recent improvements as evidence that inflation is on a sustained path back to 2%,” she said.
