The U.S. central bank should consider accelerating the winding down of its large-scale bond purchases at its next policy meeting in two weeks amid a strong economy and expectations that a surge in inflation will persist into the middle of next year, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said on Tuesday.
Powell twinned his remarks, described by some analysts as “surprisingly hawkish,” with a characterization of the economic risk from an emergent variant of COVID-19 that has unnerved officials and financial markets worldwide in recent days as not comparable to the spring of 2020 when the pandemic erupted.
