Brainard: Probably Appropriate ‘Soon’ to Slow Pace of Rate Hikes

Federal Reserve Vice Chair Lael Brainard said Monday she was encouraged by last week’s U.S. inflation data and noted the Fed would likely soon reduce the size of its rate hikes. “The inflation data was reassuring, preliminarily,” Brainard said. “It will probably be appropriate, soon, to move to a slower pace of rate increases.”

“What’s really important to emphasize,” Brainard said, “is we’ve done a lot, but we have additional work to do both on raising rates and sustaining restraint to bring inflation down to 2% over time,” referencing the Fed’s inflation target.

While Brainard was rather upbeat on the inflation data, Mary Day, president of the San Francisco cautioned: “One month of data does not a victory make, and I think it’s really important to be thoughtful, that this is just one piece of positive information.”