Powell maintains 'hawkish tilt' at Jackson Hole

Inflation still 'too high'

Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell emphasised the Fed’s readiness to maintain a “restrictive” policy to bring inflation down in his speech at the Jackson Hole symposium last week (25 August).

While Powell acknowledged inflation in the US was well past its peak, he warned that it still remained "too high", and rates could remain higher for longer. "We are prepared to raise rates further, if appropriate, and intend to hold policy at a restrictive level until we are confident that inflation is moving sustainably down toward our objective," the Fed chair added. Corporate defaults are likely to be 'far worse than the Bank of England's base case' Jason England, fixed income portfolio manager at Janus Henderson, noted the contrast between Powell's "Volkeresque hawkish ...