Powell speech: Possible our rate rises could cause a recession

FOMC Chairman Jerome Powell is testifying before the Senate Banking, Housing, & Urban Affairs Committee on "The Semiannual Monetary Policy Report to Congress."

Key takeaways

"I was persuaded it was important we make the 75 bps move now."

"It was important to do it now with inflation coming above target over and over again."

"Longer-run neutral level is around 2.5%."

"Will be appropriate to raise rates to a moderately restrictive level."

"We need to go above that to deal with very high inflation."

"We need to do our job."

"We'll do that by raising rates, but of course we are data-dependent on how far."

"Will be flexible as we see data coming in."

"It is a possibility our rate rises could cause a recession."

"Events around the world have made it more difficult to achieve what we want."

"We said we'll look at selling MBS when balance sheet reduction is well under way."

"We may well need to sell MBS at some future date."

Market reaction

The US Dollar Index extended its slide on these comments and was last seen losing 0.5% on the day at 103.92.