Sept 30 (Reuters) – Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook on Wednesday said she is committed to bringing inflation down without harming the labor market in remarks that only briefly touched on monetary policy and did not address the latest inflation data.
“Regardless of whether you are in a rural or urban area, the fact remains that inflation has been too high for too long,” Cook said in remarks prepared for delivery at a Richmond Fed conference on investing in rural America, held in Asheville, North Carolina. “I am committed to returning inflation to our objective while preserving the strength in the labor market.”
US inflation increased less than expected in August, data published on Wednesday showed, and traders now expect the Fed to skip a rate hike at its October meeting, particularly after New York Fed President John Williams on Tuesday said he sees “no urgency” to deliver another hike so soon after this month’s quarter-point increase in the policy rate.
Cook did not revisit more extensive remarks on the drivers of inflation made Monday, and spent the bulk of her speech discussing the rural economy, where she said inflation has tended to run higher than in the nation as a whole, and labor force participation rates are lower.
(Reporting by Ann Saphir; Editing by Andrea Ricci)
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