Inflation has cooled and the economy may be on the way to a “soft landing,” but Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell isn’t🥃 ready to signal a victory over i🃏nflation yet.

Powell acknowledged Monday that the 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:most recent Consumer Prᩚᩚᩚᩚ🐲ᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚice Index (CPI) report was the latest in a series of improving inflation readings that has boosted confidence among central bankers. Powell and his 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:colleagues who set monetary policy have said they need confidence price pressures are easing before they move to cut their 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:influential interest rate. 

“We’ve had now three better readings, and if you average them, that’s a pretty good pace,” Powell said during an interview at the Economic Club of Washington, D.C. “The three readings in the second quarter, including the one fr🎃om last week, do add somಌewhat to confidence.”

Fed Working ‘Mee𓄧ting-By-Meeting’ on Interest Rateꦑs

Powell wasn’t ready to forecast any change to the interest rate, which has been at a 23-year-high for the past 12 months. Fed officials are basing their interest-rate decisions on available economic data on a “meeting-by-meeting" basis, Powell said.

Investors expect the central bank to cut rates 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:at its September meeting. However, while Powell didn’t forecast a timeline for rate cuts, he did make one prediction: Powell said a “澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:soft-landing” scenario—where inflation drops without a s🦩pike in unemployment—seemed more possibl🎐e.

“♐The hard landing scenario is certainly not the most likely, or a likely, scenario,” Powell said.

Powell attributed the labor market's strength to how overheated it was before the Fed began its fight against inflation, allowing it it to cool without significant job losses so far.

Labor Market Nearing 2019 Levels, Powell Says

The Federal Reserve has been increasingly on alert in recent weeks as the number of 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:job openings has stagnated and 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:unemployment has risen. Significant jumps in unemployment could prompt the central bank to cut interest rates quicker than the💖y would otherwise, fearing a rapidly cooling ec⛄onomy.,

However, Pow𒅌ell said the movement in the labor market is just a better balance between worker availabi🦩lity and job postings.

“It is 𓄧essentially no tighter than in 2019, before the pandemic,” Powell said. “Re🎃member that the labor market of 2019 was a very strong labor market.”