Fed 'not confident' policy at sufficiently restrictive level, Powell says

Investing.com -- Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said Thursday the Fed wasn't confident yet they had reached a sufficiently restrictive level on monetary policy to bring inflation down to target, suggesting further rate hikes cannot be ruled out.

"The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) is committed to achieving a stance of monetary policy that is sufficiently restrictive to bring inflation down to 2 percent over time; we are not confident that we have achieved such a stance," Powell said in opening remarks Thursday during a policy panel at the 24th Jacques Polak Annual Research Conference, hosted by the International Monetary Fund.

The fed chief acknowledged that U.S. inflation had come down over the past year but said it remains "well above our 2 percent target," Powell added, warning that the inflation "has given us a few head fakes."

"If it becomes appropriate to tighten policy further, we will not hesitate to do so," Powell said, though also balanced his remarks by reiterating that the Fed would continue to "move carefully" on future policy decisions.

A careful approach would allow the Fed to "address both the risk of being misled by a few good months of data, and the risk of overtightening," he added.

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