NEW YORK—Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Wednesday said the economy is stronger now than the central bank had expected in September when it began reducing interest rates, and appeared to signal his support for a slower pace of interest-rate cuts ahead.
“The U.S. economy is in very good shape and there’s no reason for that not to continue ... the downside risks appear to be less in the labor market, growth is definitely stronger than we thought, and inflation has come in a little higher,“ Powell said at a New York Times event. ”So the good news is that we can afford to be a little more cautious as we try to find neutral.”
