Federal Reserve Chair Powell Cites Lack of Progress in Reaching Inflation Goal

In a discussion on U.S. and Canadian economic policies, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said there has been a significant decline in inflation over the past year but expressed concern over recent data. “We took a cautious approach and sought greater confidence so as not to overreact to the string of low inflation readings that we had in the second half of last year,” Mr. Powell said in remarks on April 16. “The recent data have clearly not given us greater confidence and instead indicate that it’s likely to take longer than expected to achieve that confidence. That said, we think policy is well positioned to handle the risks that we face.”...