Atlanta Federal Reserve President Raphael Bostic said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” program, “Inflation is high. It is too high. And we need to do all we can to make it come down.”

He added the US need to have a “slowdown”, but “we are going to do all that we can at the Federal Reserve to avoid deep, deep pain.”

“We’re still creating lots of jobs on a monthly basis, and so I actually think that there is some ability for the economy to absorb our actions and slow in a relatively orderly way,” he said.

In his semiannual Congressional testimony, Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s prepared remarks highlighted the necessity for Fed to await “greater confidence” in inflation’s sustainable movement towards 2 % target before considering any reduction in policy rates.

Powell acknowledged the policy rate is “likely at its peak” for the current cycle, and it’s appropriate for “dialing back policy restraint at some point this year.” However, he also stressed the “uncertain” economic outlook and noted that the path to 2% inflation is “not assured,”

The Fed Chair warned of the consequences of prematurely or excessively loosening policy, noting that such actions could jeopardize the progress made in inflation control, possibly necessitating “even tighter policy” in the future. Conversely, delaying or minimizing the reduction of policy restraint risks harming economic activity and employment.

Full remarks of Fed Powell here.

New York Fed President John Williams said overnight that the “most likely case” was for US economy to grow 2%, with low unemployment. To him, the probability of recession this year or next was “not elevated relative to any year”. He also downplayed the significance of yield curve inversion. He added “there’s a lot of reasons to think that it has been a recession predictor for reasons in the past that kind of don’t apply today.” And, it only “telling us that growth will be pretty modest”.

On monetary policy, Williams said short-term interest rate is “around neutral”. Meanwhile, “any development in the economy, whether it’s on the employment side or on the inflation side, that moved in a persistent way away from our objectives, one way or the other, would be a reason to rethink the path of policy going forward.”