IMF Says Fed May Need To Push Interest Rates Higher For Longer — 'Inflation Does Remain A Pressing Concern'

The International Monetary Fund on Thursday reportedly called on the Federal Reserve and other central banks to “stay the course” on their monetary policy and remain vigilant in tackling inflation.

IMF spokesperson Julie Kozack said inflation momentum has slowed in the United States but still remained a pressing concern. “If inflation does prove to be more persistent than expected, then the Fed may need to push interest rates higher for longer,” she told reporters, according to Reuters.

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Kozack also said the Fund would release an updated World Economic Outlook on July 25.

Fed Policy: Investors and traders are keenly awaiting the release of inflation data along with the Federal Reserve's policy decision next week. Wall Street is expected to hang on to every word coming from the central bank for potential clues regarding its future policy path. Traders are factoring in a status quo policy in June with a 74.8% probability the central bank will not hike rates this time, according to the CME FedWatch Tool.

“We also see that inflation momentum has slowed, but that inflation does remain a pressing concern,” Kozack said. “Our advice remains unchanged, which is that the Fed would need to stay the course on monetary policy to ensure a durable reduction in inflation and to ensure that inflation expectations … remain well-anchored,” she said.

The IMF spokesperson also said the Fund sees challenges over the medium term for the global economy which requires policy measures ‘to be taken now.' “We believe that central banks should stay the course on monetary tightening to decisively reduce inflation,” she said.

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