Fed’s Powell: Trump tariffs could raise prices, slow growth

• Donald Trump’s tariffs are expected to raise prices and constrain growth, according to Jerome Powell.
• Powell warned that tariffs could create tension between the Fed’s goals of stable prices and employment.
• US markets fell after Powell’s remarks, with the Nasdaq Composite down 3.1%.

Donald Trump’s tariffs will likely push up prices and constrain growth, and could put the US Federal Reserve in the unenviable position of having to choose between tackling inflation and unemployment, the bank’s chairman said on Wednesday (Thursday NZT).

“Tariffs are highly likely to generate at least a temporary rise in inflation,” Fed chairman Jerome Powell told the Economic Club of Chicago, warning that the inflationary effects “could also be more persistent”.

“Avoiding that outcome will depend on the size of the effects, on how long it takes for them to pass through fully to prices, and, ultimately, on keeping longer-term inflation expectations well anchored,” he added, echoing similar remarks earlier this month.

Twin goals

The US Fed has a dual mandate from Congress to ensure both stable prices and maximum sustainable employment over time.

It keeps those twin objectives in balance by lowering or raising interest rates, which act as either a throttle or a brake for demand in the US economy.

Powell said that while the Fed’s employment and inflation goals were largely in balance, policymakers could find themselves in the “challenging scenario in which our dual-mandate goals are in tension”.

US markets fell after Powell’s remarks, with the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite down 4.5% in late trading before recovering some ground to finish 3.1% in he red. The S&P 500 was down 2.2%, the Dow down 1.8%.

President Donald Trump’s stop-start tariff policy has unnerved investors and trading partners unsure about the long-term policy and what it might mean for international trade.

Most economists have warned that tariffs will push up prices – at least temporarily – while acting as a drag on growth.

The Trump administration has insisted that the levies are just one part of an overall economic platform including tax cuts and deregulation designed to stimulate supply, boost growth, temper inflation, and return manufacturing jobs to the United States.

Powell said tariffs would be “likely to move us away from our goals”, referring to the Fed’s dual mandate.

– Agence France-Presse