Americans face another painful blow to mortgages and credit cards as Fed signals more interest rate hikes
Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh said Friday he will not prejudge the U.S. central bank’s upcoming interest rate decisions in October and December.
A quarter-point hike in September raised the key rate to roughly 3.9%—the Fed’s first move in three years. High U.S. inflation will likely force another increase in coming months to curb spending and ease prices.
Warsh offered no fresh signals during a discussion with International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva at a financial summit in Bangkok.
“At the Federal Reserve, we made very clear that we would deliver price stability, and we removed a dose of accommodation about a month ago,” Warsh said. “I don’t prejudge meetings. I don’t believe in saying now what I might do at the meetings that we have in the balance of this year.”
The September hike went against demands from U.S. President Donald Trump to lower rates. The president criticized the committee while still supporting Warsh, whom he appointed earlier this year.
Global inflation remains a primary focus for central bankers meeting in Thailand.
Recent meeting minutes show most Fed officials think one more rate hike will likely be needed this year, raising costs for mortgages, car loans, and credit cards.
Warsh pointed to surging artificial intelligence investment as a key inflation driver, noting the Fed’s AI task force meets Nov. 16.
“I’d say the advent of this new technology is probably the most consequential change to the U.S. and the global economy in my lifetime to this point,” he said.
Unlike military conflict or other price-raising shocks, Warsh expects AI to bring “huge benefit” to global growth long term.
For Fed economists struggling with lagging data, AI could prove invaluable, he added.
“We torture data with old-fashioned models to try to find out what’s underlying inflation trends. Not so long from now, it won’t be torture. We will have access at the fingertips of central banks to all the information in the world, and we’ll be able to use new analytical tools to distill that data,” he said.
