Fed's Williams: If inflation comes down, we will have to lower rates

Federal Reserve (Fed) Bank of New York President John Williams said on Tuesday that they need to stay in "data-dependent mode," as reported by Reuters.

Key takeaways

"We see some slowing in demand for labor, but still high."

"Job growth is still quite strong."

"Inflation still way above our 2% goal, seeing it coming down mostly in goods and commodities."

"Some core services inflation ex-housing hasn't budged yet so we have our work cut out for us."

"Too soon to see changes in credit conditions and availability, not seeing strong signs of those effects happening yet."

"We've gotten policy to a restrictive stance, now we need to watch the data on retail sales, CPI and others."

"We will see what we need to do on hikes by assessing the data."

"We are somewhat restrictive on policy right now."

"I expect economy to grow at a modest rate this year."

"Bank failures have added to uncertainty in the outlook."

"One more rate hike is a reasonable starting place but we will be driven by the data."

"We really need to see underlying inflation come down."

"If inflation comes down, we will have to lower rates."

"Banking system has really stabilized after recent stresses."

Market reaction

The US Dollar stays on the back foot following these comments and the US Dollar Index was last seen losing 0.42% on the day at 102.10.