Jerome Powell signals further US rate rises to come

Defended recent hold call

US Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell has signalled the central bank is not done raising interest rates, causing US stocks to tumble in response.

Giving testimony before the House Financial Services Committee yesterday (21 June), Powell said: "The process of getting back down to 2% has a long way to go". US inflation dropped to 4% in May, hitting the lowest level in two years, and the following day, the Fed opted to pause its streak of interest rate hikes and held at 5-5.25%. Fed makes 'hawkish skip' in first rate pause of cycle At the time, Powell warned the central bank was not done with it quantitative tightening policy, with nearly all of the Fed's committee on board with introducing a further rate rise before the end of...