Fed’s Kashkari: Inflation Is ‘Still Too High’ Even After Softer PCE Data

Minneapolis Federal Reserve President Neel Kashkari said Wednesday that price growth remained a concern despite the latest data coming in cooler than economists predicted.

“Inflation is still too high,” Kashkari told CNBC’s Steve Liesman in an exclusive one-one-one interview as part of a Council on Foreign Relations event in New York.

Kashkari’s comments follow Wednesday morning’s release of the August personal consumption expenditures price index, known as the Fed’s preferred gauge of inflation. The core version of index, which strips out volatile food and energy prices, came in lower than economists forecasted at 3% on an annual basis. (CNBC – Continue Reading)

Some Bank of Japan policymakers saw the need to accelerate the pace of interest rate rises or bring them closer to the central bank's "goal" soon, a summary of opinions at its September meeting showed, heightening the chance of further rate hikes.

Most of the opinions cited the need to follow September's rate hike with further increases in borrowing costs as inflationary pressure mounts.

"If signs of an upward deviation in prices are observed, the Bank will need to accelerate the pace of rate hikes," one member was quoted as saying. "It is desirable for the Bank to bring the policy interest rate closer to the approximate goal relatively soon" to allow it scope to respond to unexpected developments in the economy, another opinion showed. (RTRS– Continue Reading)

Australia’s central bank has downplayed concerns about the recent collapse of a large property developer, arguing that the company and its lenders in the private credit sector do not represent a system-wide financial stability risk.

“Private credit markets have grown in recent years, but their small size and structure mean they do not pose a system-wide financial stability risk at present,” the Reserve Bank said in its half-yearly Financial Stability Review released in Sydney on Thursday. However, “the opaque practices of some private credit funds can expose individual investors to unknown risks.” (BBG – Continue Reading)