By Howard Schneider
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Kansas City Federal Reserve President Jeff Schmid said on Thursday he will remain “squarely focused” on inflation and the risk new U.S. import taxes could shift prices higher and feed into rising public inflation expectations.
“I intend to keep my eye squarely focused on the outlook for inflation,” Schmid said in remarks to a finance group in Kansas City that acknowledged what he sees as a growing chance the U.S. central bank will have to weigh inflation concerns against risks to the job market and economic growth.
“It appears as though we have seen a marked increase in the upside risks around inflation along with elevated downside risks to the outlook for employment and growth,” he said. “With renewed price pressures likely, I am not willing to take any chances when it comes to maintaining the Fed’s credibility on inflation.”
While tariffs in theory may have only a one-time impact on prices, as opposed to a more persistent effect on inflation, or the year-to-year pace of price increases, “I would be hesitant to take too much solace from theory in this environment,” he said. “Given the recent experience with high inflation, I am concerned that any further jump in prices could further push up inflation expectations.”
Schmid’s prepared remarks are among the first by a Fed official since President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced a 90-day pause on some of the tariffs imposed on U.S. trading partners after signs of stress began to emerge in credit and bond markets.
Though Trump’s announcement provided relief from what had been a sharp drop in equity prices, it left in place other levies, including ones on China, Mexico, and Canada, that had prompted Fed officials to begin shifting their outlook in the first place and raise the possibility the central bank’s two goals of stable inflation and low unemployment could end up in conflict.
Schmid did not mention in his prepared comments the release earlier on Thursday of Consumer Price Index data for March that showed an unexpected slowdown in the pace of annual inflation and a small month-to-month drop in prices.
(Reporting by Howard Schneider; Editing by Paul Simao)
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