Fed’s Neel Kashkari Says Inflation Remains Too High Across All Sectors

India-West News Desk

WASHINGTON, DC – Inflation remains too high across the US economy, Minneapolis Federal Reserve President Neel Kashkari said September 20, even after excluding food and volatile energy prices.

“The inflation that the American people are feeling every day is much beyond just oil prices. It’s in all aspects of the economy,” Kashkari, a Republican, told Jackie DeAngelis on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.”

Kashkari said the Federal Reserve has the tools to bring inflation down. He also said he hoped other parts of the government and the private sector would help the economy return to normal.

His remarks came days after the Federal Reserve raised its benchmark interest rate by a quarter point. The Federal Open Market Committee set the target range at 3.75 percent to 4 percent.

The FOMC had not raised rates since July 2023. It cut rates at each of its final three meetings last year.

Going against an angry President Donald Trump who had appointed him, Fed Chair Kevin Warsh said after the unanimous decision that the rate increase would support a “timelier return” to the central bank’s 2 percent inflation target. He also said broad financial conditions were not restrictive and that the view was widely shared by the committee.

The latest consumer price index showed annual inflation at 3.4 percent in August. Core inflation, which excludes food and energy, was 2.4 percent.

Inflation has remained above the Fed’s 2 percent target since March 2021 and reached a 40-year high of 9.1 percent in June 2022.