{"id":568647,"date":"2026-04-06T22:19:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T22:19:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/568647\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T22:19:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T22:19:19","slug":"the-feds-next-move-may-not-be-a-cut-as-inflation-and-gas-prices-squeeze-consumers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/568647\/","title":{"rendered":"The Fed\u2019s next move may not be a cut as inflation and gas prices squeeze consumers"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 A top Federal Reserve official said Monday that an interest rate hike could be appropriate if inflation remains persistently above<\/a> the central bank\u2019s 2% target, the latest sign that some policymakers are moving away from a bias toward reducing borrowing costs.<\/p>\n

Beth Hammack, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, said in an interview with The Associated Press that her general preference is for the Fed keep its benchmark interest rate unchanged \u201cfor quite some time.\u201d<\/p>\n

And she also said the Fed might have to cut its rate if higher gas prices caused the economy to slow and unemployment to rise. But if inflation remained elevated, a rate hike could be needed, she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI can foresee scenarios where we would need to reduce rates … if the labor market deteriorates significantly,\u201d Hammack said. \u201cOr I could see where we might need to raise rates if inflation stays persistently above our target.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hammack\u2019s comments suggest a growing concern among at least some policymakers that inflation, which was elevated before<\/a> the Iran war, may require rate hikes to tame further. Rate increases by the Fed would be a sharp shift from late last year, when the central bank cut its key rate three times<\/a>. Rate hikes could lift borrowing costs for consumers and businesses, including for mortgages, auto loans, and credit cards.<\/p>\n

Other Fed officials have recently opened the door<\/a> to rate hikes, including Austan Goolsbee, president of the Chicago Fed. And minutes of the Fed\u2019s meeting in late January said that several of the 19 officials on the rate-setting committee supported altering the post-meeting statement to reflect the possibility of \u201cupward adjustments\u201d to rates. <\/p>\n

A rate hike would almost certainly prompt President Donald Trump to lash out at the Fed, which he has harshly criticized for not cutting rates further. He has called for the central bank\u2019s key rate to be lowered to 1%, down from its current level of about 3.6%. <\/p>\n

The government will update two inflation measures this week, though only one will likely reflect the impact of the jump in gas prices since the Iran war began Feb. 28. Gas prices averaged $4.12 a gallon nationwide Monday, according to AAA, up 80 cents from a month earlier. <\/p>\n

On Friday, the government will issue the March inflation report, providing a first read on the impact of higher gas and energy prices. Economists forecast that annual inflation will worsen significantly, jumping to 3.1% from 2.4% in February, according to a survey by data provider FactSet. On a monthly basis, they expect consumer prices rose 0.8% in March from February, which would be the biggest increase in almost four years. <\/p>\n

The Commerce Department will report the Fed\u2019s preferred inflation gauge for February on Thursday, though that won\u2019t incorporate any impact from the Iran conflict.<\/p>\n

Hammack said that the Cleveland Fed\u2019s own estimates show inflation could reach 3.5% in April, which would be the highest since 2024. Inflation spiked to 9.1% in June 2022 before slowly declining. <\/p>\n

\u201cInflation has been running above our target for more than five years now,\u201d Hammack said, and a further increase would mean it is \u201cmoving in the wrong direction, away from our 2% objective.\u201d <\/p>\n

The Federal Reserve is required by Congress to seek low inflation and maximum employment, and higher gas prices could threaten both those mandates, creating a challenging situation for Fed officials.<\/p>\n

Consumers may react to higher gas prices by cutting back on their spending<\/a> elsewhere in the economy, Hammack said, which could lead to weaker growth and layoffs, which the Fed would need to respond to with rate cuts. <\/p>\n

How the war impacts the economy will depend on how long it lasts and how high it lifts gas prices and other costs, Hammack said. Now in its sixth week, the conflict has already lasted longer than she expected when the Fed last met March 17-18, Hammack said. <\/p>\n

Hammack said rising gas prices stemming from the Iran war are \u201cthe No. 1 thing\u201d she hears about from people in her district, which covers Ohio and parts of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Kentucky. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that causes a lot of pain personally, as it eats up a bigger and bigger share of people\u2019s paychecks. So it\u2019s important for us to stay focused on it,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 A top Federal Reserve official said Monday that an interest rate hike could be appropriate…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":568648,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[232237,59408,69506,28,852,12,8876,109,69620,8877,1904,793,2402,801,228242,569,8639,12303,6454,139727,5631,3234,795,7943,18304],"class_list":{"0":"post-568647","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-2024-2026-mideast-wars","9":"tag-austan-goolsbee","10":"tag-beth-hammack","11":"tag-business","12":"tag-cleveland","13":"tag-donald-trump","14":"tag-economic-indicators","15":"tag-economic-policy","16":"tag-energy-markets","17":"tag-federal-reserve-system","18":"tag-financial-services","19":"tag-general-news","20":"tag-inflation","21":"tag-iran","22":"tag-iran-war","23":"tag-kentucky","24":"tag-ky-state-wire","25":"tag-oh-state-wire","26":"tag-ohio","27":"tag-oil-and-gas-industry","28":"tag-pa-state-wire","29":"tag-pennsylvania","30":"tag-u-s-news","31":"tag-west-virginia","32":"tag-wv-state-wire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=568647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568647\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/568648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=568647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=568647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=568647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}