Fed official says weak jobs data backs 3 rate cuts this year
Meanwhile, the unemployment rate in July edged up to 4.2 percent from 4.1 percent in June. "A proactive approach in moving policy closer to neutral, from its current moderately restrictive stance, would help avoid a further unnecessary erosion in labor market conditions and reduce the chance that the (Federal Open Market) Committee will need to implement a larger policy correction should the labor market deteriorate further," Bowman said in a speech delivered at the Kansas Bankers Association 2025 CEO & Senior Management Summit held in Colorado.
At the Fed's policy meeting in late July, the central bank kept the target range for the federal funds rate unchanged at 4.25 percent to 4.5 percent, a level that has remained steady since last December. Bowman was one of two Fed officials who dissented from the decision. Most Fed officials have been more cautious about cutting rates, citing concerns that broad-based tariffs on US trading partners could push inflation higher.
The US consumer price index rose by 2.7 percent in June compared to a year earlier, the largest increase since February. However, Bowman sees tariff-related price increases as likely a "one-time effect," adding that inflation will return to the Fed's 2 percent target after these effects dissipate. "Because changes in monetary policy take time to work their way through the economy, it is appropriate to look through temporarily elevated inflation readings and therefore remove some policy restraint to avoid weakening in the labor market," she said.
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