FOMC Chairman Jerome Powell comments on the policy outlook after the Federal Reserve's decision to raise the policy rate by 25 basis points to the range of 5-5.25% following the May policy meeting.
Key quotes
"We are trying to reach and then stay at for an extended period a sufficiently restrictive stance to bring down inflation."
"We have to balance risk of not doing enough against risk of slowing economic activity too much."
"Felt that this rate hike and change in statement was the right way to balance that."
"Will be an ongoing process to assess appropriate level of rates."
"Policy is tight."
"Real rates are around 2%, meaningfully above neutral rate."
"We might possibly be at sufficiently restrictive level, may not be far off."
"We have a goal of getting to 2%, will take some time and will not be a smooth process."
"We think we will need to stay on this for a while."
"Wages still above level consistent with 2% inflation over time."
"Labor market is very very strong, inflation is running high and well above goal."
"Right now we need to focus on bringing inflation down."