Regional President Speech

8/2/23, 4:21 PM Bullard Discusses Inflation and the Economic Outlook | St. Louis Fed Home > Recent Remarks and Interviews > Speeches, Presentations and Commentary From the President Bullard Discusses Ination and the Economic Outlook January 12, 2023 St. Louis Fed President Jim Bullard talked about the need for the Fed to keep interest rates at high enough levels to ensure ination moves down and stays down. He also discussed “bullish factors” for the U.S. economy in 2023 during a Wisconsin Bankers Association virtual event. Ination remains well above the Fed’s ination target but is moderating in response to front- loaded and aggressive monetary policy in 2022, Bullard said. The Fed’s policy—especially the aspect of front-loading policy rate increases—has been the right one to get the policy rate to the right level to return ination to the 2% target on a consistent basis, Bullard said. By front-loading transparently and communicating with markets, the Fed can avoid 1970s outcomes, when ination would seem to come down but then rise again to even higher levels, he said. “That means that the Fed is going to have to maintain rates at high enough levels to make sure that ination is moving down and staying down on a consistent basis,” he said. Bullard said that his preference would be to get to the level of the policy rate that would be considered sufciently restrictive as soon as possible and get the benet of downward pressure on ination from the higher policy rate. Bullard also cited “bullish” factors for the U.S. economy going into 2023, including forecasts of above-trend GDP growth for the fourth quarter of 2022, which would bring GDP for the second half of 2022 more in line with the strong labor market, he said. Bullard also cited household wealth and improved global economic prospects. Bullard answered questions about the Fed’s quantitative tightening program, supply chain constraints and money supply. https://www.stlouisfed.org/from-the-president/speeches-and-presentations/2023/inflation-and-the-economic-outlook-wba 1/3 8/2/23, 4:21 PM Bullard Discusses Inflation and the Economic Outlook | St. Louis Fed FOLLOW US SIGN UP FOR EMAIL ALERTS Receive updates in your inbox as soon as new content is published on our website SIGN UP QUICK LINKS About Us Legal Information Contact Us Privacy Policy Careers https://www.stlouisfed.org/from-the-president/speeches-and-presentations/2023/inflation-and-the-economic-outlook-wba 2/3 8/2/23, 4:21 PM Bullard Discusses Inflation and the Economic Outlook | St. Louis Fed Doing Business with the Fed Events Federal Reserve Services Visiting the St. Louis Fed Federal Banking Regulations https://www.stlouisfed.org/from-the-president/speeches-and-presentations/2023/inflation-and-the-economic-outlook-wba 3/3

James Bullard (2023, January 11). Regional President Speech. Speeches, Federal Reserve. https://whenthefedspeaks.com/doc/regional_speeche_20230112_james_bullard

@misc{wtfs_regional_speeche_20230112_james_bullard,
  author = {James Bullard},
  title = {Regional President Speech},
  year = {2023},
  month = {Jan},
  howpublished = {Speeches, Federal Reserve},
  url = {https://whenthefedspeaks.com/doc/regional_speeche_20230112_james_bullard},
  note = {Retrieved via When the Fed Speaks corpus}
}