Neel Kashkari, President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, speaks at the Milken Conference 2024 Global Conference Session at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California, USA, May 7, 2024.
David Swanson | Reuters
Minneapolis Fed President Kashkari said Thursday that consumer price increases are “too high” and that lowering U.S. inflation is a priority over the labor market.
Kashkari told CNBC’s Kaori Enjoji at the Bank of Japan’s IMES conference that the U.S. central bank will take a “balanced approach” to its dual mandate of price stability and full employment.
But he noted that while inflation has been above the Fed’s 2% target for more than five years, the labor market is currently in “decent shape.”
“My focus is on inflation. I’m not ignoring the labor market at all. We need to pay attention to both sides, but while the labor market is in decent shape at the moment, inflation is simply too high,” he said.
He added that the longer inflation remains high, the greater the risk that inflation expectations will become unanchored and rise.
“If that happens, we will need to be more aggressive, and we would be far better off doing what is necessary to anchor inflation expectations.”
The US headline inflation rate was most recently 3.8% in April. Core CPI, which excludes food and energy, rose 0.4% and 2.8%, respectively.
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