Fed to 'stay on job' to lower inflation to 2% target: Official

ISTANBUL

The US Federal Reserve will stay "on the job" to achieve its objective of lowering inflation to its 2% target, according to a top official of the US central bank.

"When the FOMC began raising the federal funds rate in March 2022 to tame inflation, it used forward guidance to make clear our intention to reach a policy stance that is sufficiently restrictive to bring inflation back to 2 percent," Fed Governor Christopher Waller said Tuesday at a conference sponsored by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University in Washington, D.C.

"The choice of a 2% longer-run goal reflected a broad consensus that this rate corresponded to effective price stability in the United States. Around the world, too, inflation-targeting central banks view 2% as the rate corresponding to price stability," he added.

Waller's statements came one day before figures showed that producer inflation rose annually by 2.2% in September, marking the largest year-on-year increase since April, according to the Labor Department data released Wednesday.

The figures for consumer inflation will be released Thursday at 8.30 a.m. EDT.

The Fed made 11 interest rate increases since March 2022 to tame record inflation that climbed last summer to its highest in more than 40 years. But the bank skipped a rate increase last month for the second time this year, keeping the federal funds rate unchanged between the 5.25% - 5.5% target range -- still the highest in 22 years.