Federal Reserve officials are just as worried about an inflation rate that runs too cold as one that runs too hot.
While rising prices are in the spotlight now as the economy reopens and demand surges, the longer-run trends that have suppressed costs globally could re-emerge as the pandemic ends, some policy makers warn. That would make it harder to deliver on their new strategy of running inflation above their 2% target for a time in order to achieve that goal over the longer run.
“We are probably more likely to be successful with the new monetary policy regime than if we didn’t have it,” Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren said in a Bloomberg News interview this week. But based on the experience of the last decade “you have to take seriously the idea that it is not going to be that easy to get 2% inflation.”
Investors are likely to hear more on the topic from Fed Chair Jerome Powell when he speaks at a event held by the Economic Club of Washington on Wednesday.
Policy makers at the central bank have been pressed in recent weeks about whether an expected spike in prices—as the U.S. rebounds from pandemic shutdowns—will be a temporary blip or something more permanent and dangerous to the economy after a wave of unprecedented monetary and fiscal stimulus over the past year.
For years, major economies including the U.S., Japan and the euro zone have struggled to raise inflation to 2% despite aggressive monetary policy actions. Aging populations, the impact of new technology and the disinflationary force of globalization are not things central banks can wish away, while rates stuck at zero—or below—telegraph the limits of their power.
Inflation pessimism shows up in forecasts released by Fed officials’ at their March meeting as well. Even after taking account of the passage last month of President Joe Biden’s additional $1.9 trillion stimulus package in their forecasts, more than half of the 18 Fed officials estimated inflation would be around 2% or slightly below next year. A majority also forecast prices in a range of 1.9% to 2.2% for 2023.
“Several participants commented that the factors that had contributed to low inflation during the previous expansion could again exert more downward pressure on inflation than expected,” minutes of the gathering showed said.
On the other hand, a sharp jump in consumer prices last month is a reminder that the risks are two-sided. Both goods and services prices rose last month with the consumer price index rising 0.6% after a 0.4% gain in February as the end of pandemic lockdowns drove up the cost of gasoline, car rentals and hotel rooms, according to data released Tuesday.
Rosengren said the Fed has never tried to shift to a new policy regime while exiting a pandemic amid aggressive fiscal stimulus. “We have to be pretty humble about how confident we are about what the inflation outcomes are going to be,” he said.