Federal Reserve Goulsby: November inflation report “remarkable” interest rate cuts still need more data support

The Zhitong Finance App learned that Chicago Federal Reserve Chairman Goulsby confirmed the November inflation report, saying that the report shows that price pressure is gradually easing, which contains “many positive signals.”

“Although this is only a single month's data, and we should not overinterpret the monthly fluctuations, the November data is indeed remarkable,” Goulsby said in an interview on Thursday.

At the Federal Reserve's November interest rate meeting, the majority of members voted to cut interest rates, while Goulsby opposed it. He was more inclined to keep interest rates unchanged at the time. The core concern was that the level of inflation was still higher than the 2% target set by the Federal Reserve. Since then, Goulsby further stated that in order to confirm that inflation has substantially fallen back to a level that meets the conditions for interest rate cuts, it is still necessary to wait for more economic data to support it.

Data released earlier on Thursday by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that the year-on-year growth rate of core inflation in the US fell back to its lowest level since the beginning of 2021. As of November, the overall US consumer price index (CPI) rose 2.7% year on year, which is narrower than the 3% increase as of September. However, economists cautioned that the accuracy of these data was disrupted due to the government shutdown.

Goulsby pointed out that if the job market remains stable in the future and the inflation trend continues to move closer to the Fed's target, he will be open to “moderate” interest rate cuts.