Chicago Fed’s Goolsbee Says October CPI Is Troubling, Stresses Urgency of Curbing Inflation

Austan Goolsbee, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, voiced concern about stronger-than-expected inflation and stressed the need to rein in price pressures.

Bloomberg reported on November 10 that Goolsbee said in an interview with PBS NewsHour that the U.S. consumer price index for October was "another disappointing reading" and "close to a troubling level." He said he had been hoping to see progress toward price stability.

Goolsbee said he had expected the effects of tariffs and high energy prices, which had previously fueled inflation, to have eased by now. But price gains in the services sector have been stubborn, which he called "probably the most concerning part."

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said October core CPI rose 0.3% from the previous month. Core inflation, which excludes food and energy, came in above market forecasts for a third straight month, fueling concern that inflation pressures could prove more persistent than expected.

Earlier, Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller said at an event in London that the Fed may need to raise its benchmark interest rate by 0.50 percentage point at the December Federal Open Market Committee meeting if inflation does not cool. That would be a more aggressive tightening move than the usual 0.25 percentage-point increase.

Asked about the possibility of a half-point move in December, Goolsbee said it was not appropriate to rule out options ahead of a monetary policy meeting. "There's the biggest table I've ever seen in my life in that room," he said. "All options are always on the table."

He also stressed that inflation must be brought back to target, adding that prices are moving in the wrong direction. Goolsbee does not vote on FOMC rate decisions this year.