'No guarantee' Fed can tame inflation, spare jobs, says Jerome Powell

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said there's no guarantee'' the central bank can tame runaway inflation without hurting the job market.

Speaking Wednesday at a European Central Bank forum in Sintra, Portugal, Powell repeated his hope that the Fed can achieve a so-called soft landing raising interest rates just enough to slow the economy and rein in surging consumer prices without causing a recession and sharply raising the unemployment rate.

We believe we can do that. That is our aim,'' he said. But the Russian invasion of Ukraine, he said, had made the job more difficult by disrupting commerce and driving up the price of food, energy and chemicals.

It's gotten harder,'' Powell said. The pathways have gotten narrower.''
Overall,'' he said, the U.S. economy is well-positioned to withstand tighter monetary policy.''