Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell made it clear on Friday the U.S. central bank would not shy away from pivoting to interest rate cuts in the final weeks of a presidential election campaign and that protecting the job market was now its top priority.
“The time has come for policy to adjust,” Powell said in a speech to the Kansas City Fed’s annual Jackson Hole conference in a strong signal the central bank will start cutting rates in mid-September, roughly seven weeks before the Nov. 5 election.
His remarks — essentially a declaration that the Fed’s fight with inflation was over and safeguarding employment was now at the top of its to-do list — came the morning after Vice President Kamala Harris accepted the Democratic nomination for president, a development that has disrupted a contest that had been leaning toward former President Donald Trump, the Republican candidate.
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