Federal Reserve Chairperson Powell warns against over-interpreting CPI data

Federal Reserve Chairperson Jerome Powell on Wednesday warned against reading too much into data showing the largest month-on-month increase in the consumer price index (CPI) in more than a year, while also acknowledging that the reading was significantly higher than expected. "The CPI reading was higher than almost all forecasts, but I just want to remind you of two points," Powell told the House Financial Services Committee hearing. "First, we're not going to be thrilled by one or two good readings, and we're not going to be thrilled by one or two bad readings. Second, our inflation target focuses on the Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE) price index because we think that's a better measure of inflation. So you need to know how the conversion from CPI to PCE is going, and we'll have more of that from the Producer Price Index (PPI) tomorrow. We'll know what the PCE readings are later tomorrow. "