4/21 – Weekly Economic Highlights
Although economic data was fairly light this week, there was a full slate of speaking engagements by members of the Federal Reserve. Each of the Fed speakers, including Federal Reserve Bank of New York President John Williams, were consistent in their messaging for the near-term direction of monetary policy. Williams, who is also Vice-Chairman of the Federal Open Market Committee emphasized that inflation was still too high, and monetary policy tools would be used to restore price stability. The Vice Chairman does diverge from the majority of other central bank members in that he does not expect a recession which was disclosed in the meeting minutes from the March FOMC meeting last week. Each speaker who addressed the topic of monetary tightening signaled the need for at least one additional rate increase to curtail inflation.
