Collins Says Fed Shouldn’t Overreact to Positive Price Data

(Bloomberg) -- Federal Reserve Bank of Boston President Susan Collins said the US central bank should be patient as it considers when to lower interest rates, despite recent encouraging data on inflation.

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“It is too soon to determine whether inflation is durably on a path back to the 2% target,” Collins said Tuesday in remarks prepared for an event in Lawrence, Massachusetts. “We should not overreact to a month or two of promising news.”

“The appropriate approach to monetary policy continues to require patience,” she added, echoing remarks she made at an Atlanta Fed conference on May 21.

Fed officials last week dialed back their outlook for rate cuts, with the median projection from policymakers signaling just one decrease in 2024. Policymakers also left their benchmark rate steady in a target range of 5.25% to 5.5%, a more than two-decade high reached last July.

Their decision came the same day government data showed one important gauge of underlying inflation, the so-called core measure of consumer prices, had dropped to its lowest level in more than three years.

“In my view, the data suggest an economy with demand and supply coming into better balance, as required to restore price stability,” Collins said. “However, this process may just take more time than previously thought.”

New York Fed President John Williams made similar remarks Tuesday, saying the US economy is “moving in the right direction” but stopping short of saying when he would favor an interest-rate decrease.

--With assistance from Jonnelle Marte.

(Updates with Williams comments in seventh paragraph. An earlier version of this story included a photo of the wrong person.)

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