Fed policymakers' focus on tariffs makes central bank seem political: Miran

(Reuters) -To safeguard their critically important monetary policy independence, Federal Reserve policymakers must take an "all-or-nothing" approach to talking about the Trump administration's policies, Fed Governor Stephen Miran said on Thursday, a pointed critique of his fellow policymakers' concern about the impact of tariffs on the economy.

"When central bank officials get up repeatedly and speak about 'I think tariffs are causing X basis points of inflation'...that's fine as an economic statement, but unless you do that for every economic policy, you've singled out the economic policies of one portion of the voting public...then that part of the voting public will start to view you as a political actor," Miran said at an Institute of International Finance conference.

""I think that you either have to have a comprehensive approach where you talk about all of them or you talk about none of them -- I don't think that sort of highlighting just one of them is an acceptable answer."

(Reporting by Ann Saphir; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama )

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