Jerome Powell

The things that are sold at retail now might have been put into inventory before the tariffs, so we think we should see [higher prices] over the summer.

For the time being, we are well positioned to wait to learn more about the likely course of the economy before considering any adjustments to our policy stance.

Increases in tariffs this year are likely to push up prices and weigh on economic activity

The threat of worsening inflation, plus the uncertainty Trump has generated through his trade war and immigration policies, are causing the Fed to adopt a wait-and-see approach.

One of the reasons for why economic growth looks sluggish this year.

For the time being, we are well positioned to wait to learn more about the likely course of the economy before considering any adjustments

What's tended to happen is when there's turmoil in the Middle East, you may see a spike in energy prices.

Many, many companies do expect to put all or — some of the effect of tariffs through to the next person in the chain, and ultimately, to the consumer.

We do expect to see more of that over the course of the summer.

Today, the amount of the tariff effects — the size of the tariff effects, their duration and the time it will take are all highly uncertain.

America’s economy has been resilient. Part of that is our stance. We think we’re in a good place on that, to respond to significant economic developments.

From my standpoint, it’s not complicated. What everyone on the [Federal Open Market Committee] wants is a good, solid American economy with strong labor market and price stability. That’s what we want.

Non-political analysis

I don’t think it’s up to a Fed chair to seek a meeting with the president

Monetary policy decisions would be based solely on careful, objective, and non-political analysis

The path of policy will depend entirely on incoming economic information and what that means for the outlook.

The most important thing for everyone to understand about the ongoing existential battle to preserve our American birthright of a free and open society is that all these institutions — and the vast sources of independent knowledge…

We're in the right place to wait and see how things evolve. We don't feel like we need to be in a hurry. We feel like it's appropriate to be patient.

Longer-term interest rates are a good deal higher now, driven largely by real rates given the stability of longer-term inflation expectations.

We may be entering a period of more frequent, and potentially more persistent, supply shocks — a difficult challenge for the economy and for central banks.

It’s not a situation where we can be pre-emptive, because we actually don’t know what the right response to the data will be until we see more data.

If the large increases in tariffs that have been announced are sustained, they're likely to generate a rise in inflation, a slowdown in economic growth, and a rise in unemployment.

[It] doesn’t affect doing our job at all. We're always going to consider only the economic data, the outlook, the balance of risks, and that's it.

We don't have to be in a hurry. The economy is resilient and doing fairly well.

This would be a complicated and challenging judgment we would have to make