On Friday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Your World,” White House Council of Economic Advisers member Jared Bernstein said that inflation will not hit the Federal Reserve’s target of 2% in 2022.
Bernstein stated, [relevant remarks begin around 6:20] “I will say that the expectation of every forecast I’ve seen is that inflation is growing more slowly at the end of this year than it is now.”
He added, “I think what every forecast is showing is slower-growing inflation as we get out towards the end of this year. And why is that? One of the reasons is that we’ve been — the Federal Reserve is, of course, the first and foremost reason for those forecasts with inflation coming down, but it has to do with our work at the ports, implementing the infrastructure law –.”
Bernstein further stated, “Inflation pretty much goes up every year, the question [is] does it go up at around 2%, which is the Federal Reserve’s target, or considerably higher?”
Host Neil Cavuto then cut in to ask, “Do you think you can get down to that, to 2%?”
Bernstein responded, “Not this year.”
Bernstein continued, “What I think the American people need to see and what I think they will see is inflation growing more slowly at the end of this year while we maintain one of the tightest, most welcoming labor markets in American history. And I think that’s what matters most to people. They’re actually headed into this period from a real position of strength, with strong balance sheets, with one of the most welcoming labor markets we’ve seen, with significant nominal wage gains and wage gains that are actually beating inflation in a couple of sectors. What we need to do is help ease some of those pressures that we’ve been talking about and we believe that our actions, along with those of the Fed, will help to do that.”
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