Fed's Barkin says price pressures may not fade as fast as expected
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The U.S. central bank's fight to return inflation to its 2% target may take longer than expected to complete and limit how far interest rates can be cut, Richmond Federal Reserve President Thomas Barkin said on Wednesday. In an interview with Reuters, Barkin said he supported the half-percentage-point rate cut the Fed approved last month and agreed the benchmark rate could fall perhaps by another half a percentage point by the end of this year to take account of how far inflation has declined. But he said he was concerned inflation could prove sticky next year and prevent the Fed from cutting rates as far as investors and some of his colleagues expect, with the benchmark rate potentially being held short of the "neutral" level many policymakers expect to reach. Beyond the next few months and into the second half of 2025, "I'm more concerned about inflation than I am about the labor market," Barkin said, with a...