{"id":6039,"date":"2026-04-01T19:01:35","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T19:01:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/04\/01\/feds-musalem-says-monetary-policy-well-positioned-amid-economic-uncertainty-kitco\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T19:01:35","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T19:01:35","slug":"feds-musalem-says-monetary-policy-well-positioned-amid-economic-uncertainty-kitco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/04\/01\/feds-musalem-says-monetary-policy-well-positioned-amid-economic-uncertainty-kitco\/","title":{"rendered":"Fed's Musalem says monetary policy well positioned amid economic uncertainty – KITCO"},"content":{"rendered":"

BUY\/SELL GOLD & SILVER
All Metal Quotes
WASHINGTON, April 1 (Reuters) – St. Louis Federal Reserve President Alberto Musalem said \u200bon Wednesday he doesn’t see a near-term need for the U.S. central bank to change its interest rate \u200cstance, as he warned of rising inflation risks tied to the war in the Middle East.
“Policy is well positioned to address risks to both dual mandate objectives, and I expect the current setting of the policy rate will remain appropriate for some time,” Musalem said in the text of a \u200bspeech to be delivered before a gathering at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington.
“The economic outlook is highly uncertain,” he \u200bsaid. And while the baseline outlook holds for decent levels of growth, stability in the unemployment \u2060rate and further moderation in inflation, he added that “uncertainty from the Middle East conflict and unsettled tariff policy could weigh on \u200bconsumer and business spending in the first half of the year.”
Musalem also said “higher fuel, aluminum and fertilizer prices” could also weigh on \u200bthe economy.
In this environment, Musalem said “the risks to the labor market and inflation both tilt in unfavorable directions, that is, toward a weaker labor market and greater persistence of above-target inflation.”
He noted that it’s been an extended practice for the Fed to look through supply shocks as likely temporary \u200bdrivers of higher inflation, but the current situation may be different.
“History suggests caution is warranted, however, especially when underlying inflation is \u200bpersistently above target,” Musalem said. “Supply shocks may be more likely to have a persistent impact on inflation and inflation expectations, especially given the difficulty \u200cof identifying \u2060how much underlying inflation is due to temporary supply shocks as opposed to persistent demand pressures.”
FED OUTLOOK CLOUDED BY UNCERTAINTY
The Fed last month maintained its benchmark overnight interest rate in the 3.50%-3.75% range as it awaits data on the impact of the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, which has led to a surge in energy prices and has started to upend key global supply chains.
At its recent \u200bpolicy meeting and in comments \u200bsince then, Fed officials have \u2060given no signals they see an imminent need to change interest rate policy. The last Fed meeting saw officials pencil in one rate cut for this year, as financial markets have oscillated between \u200bexpectations of hikes and cuts due to the inflation outlook.
Musalem said there could be cases \u200bfor both lowering \u2060and lifting rates at some point.
He said he could favor easing policy if “a greater risk of a weakening labor market becomes apparent” so long as risks of higher inflation are low. As for a hike, he said that could be in the cards “to avoid an inadvertent \u2060real \u200beasing that would result from holding the policy rate constant if core inflation \u200bor medium- to long-term inflation expectations moved persistently higher and away from (the) 2%” target.
Musalem also said financial conditions are still “broadly accommodative” and stress in private credit markets \u200bis largely limited to that sector and is not a sign of broader woes.
Reporting by Michael S. Derby; Editing by Paul Simao
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BUY\/SELL GOLD & SILVERAll Metal QuotesWASHINGTON, April 1 (Reuters) – St. Louis Federal Reserve President Alberto Musalem said \u200bon Wednesday he doesn’t see a near-term need for the U.S. central bank to change its interest rate \u200cstance, as he warned of rising inflation risks tied to the war in the Middle East.“Policy is well positioned […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6040,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-6039","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}