Two top Fed officials say job not yet done on inflation

Two Federal Reserve policymakers on Saturday said they feel the US central bank's job on taming inflation is not yet done, but also signaled they do not want to risk damaging the labor market as they try to finish that job.

The remarks, from Governor Adriana Kugler and San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly, highlight the delicate balancing act facing US central bankers this year as they look to slow their pace of rate-cutting. The Fed lowered short-term rates by a full percentage point last year, to a current range of 4.25 per cent-4.50 per cent.

Inflation by the Fed's preferred measure is well down from its mid2022 peak of around 7 per cent, registering 2.4 per cent in November. Still that's above the Fed's two per cent goal, and in December policymakers projected slower progress toward that goal than they had earlier anticipated.

"We are fully aware that we are not there yet," Kugler said at the annual American Economic Association conference in San Francisco. "And at the same time ... we want the unemployment rate to stay where it is" and not increase rapidly.