Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank President Neel Kashkari said Tuesday that while the U.S. economy is closer now than it was in March to full employment, he still does not know “if we are there yet,” and that the recent decline in core inflation is “concerning.”
“We are closer, but we don’t know how far the shore is,” Kashkari told reporters at the bank’s headquarters. His comments on Tuesday follow Fed Governor Lael Brainard’s assessment Monday that there was still a “question” about whether, at 4.4 percent unemployment, there was still slack left in the U.S. labor market.
The Fed releases minutes of its April meeting on Wednesday, and many investors anticipate it will add to expectations that the Fed is firmly on course to another rate hike in June. But remarks this week from Brainard, Kashkari and Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan suggest that at least some are still feeling