Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President Beth Hammack attends the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City’s 2025 Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium, “Labor Markets in Transition: Demographics, Productivity, and Macroeconomic Policy”, in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, U.S., August 21, 2025.
Jim Urquhart | Reuters
Cleveland Federal Reserve President Beth Hammack on Monday said the U.S. central bank faces challenges as it attempts to balance fighting stubborn inflation or protecting jobs.
“On the inflation side right now, I continue to be worried about where we are from an inflation perspective,” Hammack told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe.”
“We have been missing our mandate on the inflation side, our objective of 2%, for more than four-and-a-half years and I continue to see that we have pressure in inflation both in the headline, in the core, and particularly, where I am worried about it, is I’m seeing it in the services,” she added.
Asked whether it is mistake for the Federal Reserve to be cutting interest rates given the economic backdrop, Hammack described it as “a challenging time for monetary policy,” saying the U.S. central bank was facing pressure on both sides of its mandate.
Her comments come shortly after stronger-than-expected economic data appear to have dented Wall Street’s hopes for sharp monetary easing.
The Fed approved a widely anticipated rate cut earlier this month, lowering its benchmark overnight lending rate by a quarter percentage point to a range of 4.00%-4.25%, and signaled two more were on the way before the end of the year.
A robust batch of economic data since, however, has prompted investors to dial back their expectations for rapid rate cuts.
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