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\n Share:<\/span><\/p>\n Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia President Patrick Harker reiterated on Friday his preference to keep interest rates steady. \u201cThis is a time where doing nothing is doing something, and, in fact, I\u2019d argue that it equates to doing quite a lot\u201d, said Harker speaking at the Risk Management Association, in Philadelphia.\u00a0<\/p>\n I remain rooted in my opinion that we are at the point where holding the policy rate steady is the prudent position to take<\/strong>. I arrived at this decision after carefully reviewing both the hard data and what I\u2019ve been hearing directly from contacts throughout the Third District.<\/p>\n The available data for September have mostly come out stronger than I expected. The latest on retail sales confirms that households retained spending power and did not seem shy to use it over the summer. A resilient consumer is not a problem<\/strong>. Indeed, perhaps the key tenet of a soft landing is that households get to adjust their plan for when and how it best serves them \u2014 as opposed to the kind of drastic, unavoidable adjustments that come with, say, suddenly losing their job.<\/p>\n We are not going to tolerate a reacceleration in prices.<\/p>\n While I stand ready to revise my views and act accordingly if I see signs of reinflation, I am also not going to overreact to the normal month-to-month variability in data.<\/p>\n Prolonged labor strikes, the restart of student loan payments, and international events each come with their own set of economic effects. But we won\u2019t necessarily know their extent for some time. We will need to see the data.<\/p>\n \u00a0A resolute, but patient, stance on monetary policy will allow us to achieve the soft landing that we all wish for our economy.\u00a0<\/p>\n Now, as for when I anticipate rates coming back down? That is a question to which I don\u2019t yet have an answer<\/strong>. My forecasts are based on what I know as of now. And as time goes by, as adjustments are completed, as new data emerge, and as we gain additional insight on the underlying trends, I may need to adjust my forecasts, and with them, my time frames. Suffice it to say, rates will need to stay high for a while.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\nKey takeaways from the speech:\u00a0<\/h2>\n
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