Fed Chief Expects Interest Rates to Decline, but Not to Pre-Pandemic Levels

Speaking at a conference at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco on Friday, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said he sees the federal interest rate going downward as inflation ease, but dies not expect it to reach record pre-pandemic lows. Powell also discussed the relationship between the Fed's actions and inflation, which he said was not always predictable. The Fed Chief discussed the slow post-COVID healing, which began later than he expected in 2023 in stead of 2022 as in that year "workers came back in the labor force" and :"the supply chains healed" that year.