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US Fed Official Says Biggest Fear is Inflation More Embedded Than Central Bank Realizes

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank President Neel Kashkari said his biggest fear is that underlying inflation is more embedded than the central bank estimated, which will require an even more hawkish monetary policy.
Sputnik
Fed Chair Jerome Powell is expected to signal where interest rates will be headed during a highly anticipated speech in Jackson Hole, Wyoming on Friday. Many expect the Fed to continue to raise interest rates in a bid to tame inflation that was running at a 40-year high.
"The big fear that I have in the back of my mind is if we’re [Fed] wrong and markets are wrong and that this inflation is much more embedded at a much higher level than we appreciate or markets appreciate," Kashkari said at a Wharton Club of Minnesota alumni event on Tuesday. "Then we’re going to have to be more aggressive than I anticipate... we will have to be even more hawkish than I am envisioning right now."
The Fed has hiked interest rates by 225 basis points since March in a bid to battle inflation, which is running at the highest in four decades.
Inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index, grew by 8.5% during the year to July after expanding at a four-decade high of 9.1% in the 12 months to June.
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