Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the price increases seen in the economy recently are bigger than expected, but he reiterated that they will likely wane.

"A pretty substantial part, or perhaps all, of the overshoot in inflation comes from categories that are directly affected by the reopening of the economy, such as used cars and trucks," Powell said Tuesday in response to a question before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis. "Those are things that we would look to, to stop going up and ultimately to start to decline."

But the Fed chair acknowledged the uncertainty around that view: "I will say that these effects have been larger than we expected, and they may turn out to be more persistent than we expected."

Complete your profile to continue reading and get FREE access to Treasury & Risk, part of your ALM digital membership.

Your access to unlimited Treasury & Risk content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:

  • Thought leadership on regulatory changes, economic trends, corporate success stories, and tactical solutions for treasurers, CFOs, risk managers, controllers, and other finance professionals
  • Informative weekly newsletter featuring news, analysis, real-world case studies, and other critical content
  • Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
  • Critical coverage of the employee benefits and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.

News