Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester said in a Washington Post interview yesterday, “I don’t believe we’re in a recession… We don’t have a slowdown in labor markets, and that’s two key factors that go into calling a recession.”
“Our policy has been to raise interest rates in order to cool down the demand side of the economy…. but certainly it hasn’t slowed enough, (a), to call it a recession; and (b), to even see that moderation in demand showing through yet to a moderation and a cooling-off of price increases and inflation,” she added.
“We have more work to do because we have not seen that turn in inflation. It’s got to be a sustained several months of evidence that inflation has first peaked – we haven’t even seen that yet – and that it’s moving down,” she also noted.
