Kashkari Says Inflation Will Slow This Year

Neel Kashkari is a former investment banker and candidate for CA governor. (photo minneapolisfed/ Steve Niedorf)
India-West News Desk

MINNEAPOLIS, MN – Neel Kashkari the Indian American president of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve said on Feb.16 that he thinks U.S. inflation will slow down markedly as the year progresses.

“My guess is…we’re not going to be back to our 2% target by the end of this year. But, by the end of this year, we should be well on our way back towards that,” Kashkari said, during a virtual town-hall discussion with John Howard, CEO, United Natural Foods Inc., Market Watch reported

Kashkari noted at the meeting that most private forecasts expect inflation will fade to around a 3% annual rate by the end of the year. “Just the math of that suggests inflation should start coming down over the course of the year,” he said.

“If you have a one-time boost to prices that is painful for families that have to pay it, but that does not mean you have inflation at very high rates of inflation year after year after year at very high rates,” he said.

The Minneapolis Fed president, termed as “one of the most dovish Fed officials,” by Market Watch, said, that his inflation outlook would change if supply-chain bottlenecks persist or another variant of the coronavirus spreads across the country.

“We’re going to watch the data over the next six months to see are we in fact headed in that direction,” he said.