Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell addressed inflationary concerns in a speech Friday, acknowledging a sharp rise in prices but arguing, as he has before, that these are temporary, while pointing to signs of inflation easing.
His remarks came as the Commerce Department said in a release Friday that a key inflation gauge, the so-called core PCE price index, rose 3.6 percent in July since last year, hitting a level not seen since 1991. At the same time, on a monthly basis, the core PCE gauge rose 0.3 percent between June and July, after rising 0.5 percent the prior month, suggesting inflationary pressures may be moderating.
