Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook said a worsening of geopolitical tensions, including those involving Russia, the Middle East and China, could trigger broad negative spillovers to global markets, including higher inflation.
“Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine continues to weigh on many economies in a variety of ways, including sustained disruptions to regional trade in food, energy and other commodities,” Cook said Wednesday in prepared remarks at the Central Bank of Ireland Financial System Conference in Dublin.
“The conflict in the Middle East could generate further risks to energy and financial markets, as well as a worsening of global humanitarian and migration challenges,” she added.
Escalating discord could weigh on economic activity and trade, raising financing and production costs and contributing to more sustained supply chain challenges and inflationary pressures, Cook said.
“The global financial system could be affected by a pullback from risk-taking, declines in asset prices, and losses for exposed businesses and investors,” she said.
In China, “a further slowdown in economic growth could worsen financial stresses,” which “could spill over to other emerging market economies,” Cook warned.
The Fed governor also reiterated that she’s closely monitoring weaknesses at nonbank financial institutions, including money-market funds, open-end funds and insurers, as the central bank’s policy cools the economy — repeating remarks she made earlier this week.
Cook did not comment on the outlook for monetary policy or interest rates in her prepared remarks.
Fed officials held rates steady last week in a range of 5.25% to 5.5%, a 22-year high, and Chair Jerome Powell hinted that policymakers might be done raising rates. Fed officials on Tuesday said they are still trying to assess whether a run-up in long-term Treasury yields will help cool the economy enough to curtail the need for more interest-rate increases.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.