Fed’s Kashkari: Housing remains an area I’m focused on

Federal Reserve (Fed) Bank of Minneapolis President Neel Kashkari highlighted the Fed’s need to watch the economy carefully to see if current policy rates are restrictive enough. Minneapolis Fed President Kashkari was participating at a fireside chat at the Williston Basin Petroleum Conference.

Key highlights

The Fed is focused on underlying demand in the economy to get inflation down.

Americans have been spending more than I would have expected.

The housing market has been more resilient than I expected, it’s an area I’m very focused on.

The big questions mark now is, how restrictive is policy right now?

We probably need to sit here for a while longer to figure out where inflation is headed.

With higher US government debt, it might take higher borrowing costs in the nearer term to achieve 2% inflation.