U.S. Fed Chairs Counters Trump Administration Narrative On Tariffs Not Impacting Inflation

On March 7, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick rubbished the economic reality that ‘Trump Tariffs’ will lead to higher prices for the American consumer. In an exclusive conversation with Business Today Executive Director Rahul Kanwal at the India Today Conclave, Lutnick cited India’s high tariff model saying that if the premise was true, it would have impacted prices in India as well. Twelve days after that statement, Chairman of the US Federal Reserve Jerome Powell has upended that narrative. In his statement after the FOMC meet, Powell not only said that the “sentiment is quite negative at this time”, but also that goods inflation in the US has moved up pretty significantly in the first two months of the year and that a “good part of it is coming from tariffs”. The Fed decided to keep interest rates on hold, saying “Inflation has started to move up now, we think partly in response to tariffs. And there may be a delay in further progress over the course of this year.”