Fed’s Barkin seeks consistency and breath in disinflation for policy decisions

Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin, in an interview with Yahoo Finance, acknowledged that the Fed is making “good progress” in its efforts to bring down inflation.

However, he pointed out that the economic data has been somewhat erratic, emphasizing his desire for “consistency” and “breadth” in the inflation metrics. He explained that he is looking for “consistency around our target and a broad-based disinflationary set of results.”

On the topic of interest rate cuts, Barkin’s stance was cautious and data-dependent. He suggested that a response from Fed would be appropriate if inflation trends downwards as hoped. However, he stressed the unpredictability of economic data

“If you’re going to assume that inflation comes down nicely, then, of course, we’d respond appropriately. You know, I don’t assume what the data is going to do. We’ll see what happens,” he said.