Goolsbee Sees Inflation Progress as Rents Cool
2 hours ago
A cooling housing market could be good news for inflation, as central bankers will be looking for more signs rents are coming down, Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee said in a CNBC interview on Monday.
His comments come ahead of the Friday release of the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) price index, where officials and investors will be closely watching for signs that inflation is moving lower.
“I take it as a good sign that market reactions are often biggest when the data comes out, not when we make statements. To me, that’s an indicator that we’re doing the communications the right way,” Goolsbee said.
For his part, Goolsbee said he was closely watching numbers from the housing market, and especially focusing on inflation rates for rent, which have moved “significantly” lower but haven’t yet shown up in inflation data.
“There is still wide availability that housing inflation can come down,” he said.
Goolsbee also said if unemployment continued to trend higher and if consumer spending cooled, then Fed officials may begin to evaluate cutting interest rates.
“If you’re going to be extra restrictive for too long then you’re going to start to have to worry about what’s going on with the real economy,” Goolsbee said.
-Terry Lane
