Powell maintains that the Fed must act "directly" to contain inflation

MADRID, 8 Sep. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The president of the United States Federal Reserve (Fed), Jerome Powell, has stressed that the monetary authority must act "directly" to contain the rise in prices and comply with its mandate, which opens the door to another bulky rise of interest rates within two weeks.

"We have to act now, strongly, directly as we have been doing," Powell said during his speech at an event organized by the Cato Institute.

At its last meeting, in July, the Fed decided on a second consecutive interest rate hike of 75 basis points. Powell did not completely close the door on a similar hike as he said decisions depended on the latest data available at the time of the monetary policy meeting.

"The Fed has and accepts the responsibility for price stability", underlined Powell, who during his traditional speech at the symposium held annually by the Fed in Jackson Hole warned that there would be "some pain" for companies and households due to the monetary standardization.

The Fed will hold its sixth annual meeting on September 20-21. At the end of the meeting, the Fed will not only publish its monetary policy decision, but also its economic projections report.

"Through our interventions, what we hope to achieve is a period of below-trend growth, which will cause the labor market to return to a better balance and bring wages to levels that are more consistent with 2% inflation." ", the central banker has added.