(Reuters) – With inflation close to the Federal Reserve’s 2% target, the labor market resilient, and the U.S. central bank in the process of lowering borrowing costs, policymakers are ready to respond if inflation pressures rise or the job market weakens, Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin said on Tuesday.
“A strong but choosier consumer, coupled with a more productive and better valued workforce has landed the economy in a good place,” Barkin said in remarks prepared for delivery to the Baltimore Together Summit in Maryland.
That has allowed the Fed to bring down its policy rate, which had been “out of sync” with the rest of the economy.
Barkin’s remarks were his first since the Fed’s quarter-percentage-point rate cut last week, which brought the policy rate to the 4.50%-4.75% range, in what he said was a recalibration of policy to “somewhat less restrictive levels.”
What the Fed does from here, Barkin added, will depend on how businesses behave – whether they feel more comfortable about the future now that rates have come down and the U.S. election is in the rearview mirror, or if they keep their “recession playbooks” out and respond to limited pricing power with layoffs.
And there are more extreme scenarios, he said, including the potential for financial market turmoil and shocks to the economy, whether from geopolitics or something else.
“The Fed is in position to respond appropriately regardless of how the economy evolves,” Barkin said.
