Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee cautioned against overinterpreting last week’s CPI data, even as headline inflation slowed to 2.4%. In comments to CNBC, he stressed the need to confirm that easing price pressures are not temporary.
Goolsbee pointed to tariffs as a lingering uncertainty, noting that their longer-term impact could complicate the inflation outlook. For now, he prefers a wait-and-see approach rather than assuming that inflation is firmly on track toward 2%.
Still, Goolsbee kept the door open to additional easing next year. “If this proves to be transitory, and we can show that we’re on the path back to 2% inflation, I still think there’s several more rate cuts that can happen in 2026,” he said.
