• Richmond Federal Reserve Pres Thomas Barkin said he is focused intently on the persistent breadth of inflation across goods and services, and feels slower price increases need to be more widespread before he is comfortable cutting interest rates.
• Barkin, who is a voter this year on Fed interest rate policy, described in an interview on Thurs w/ Reuters how he will be parsing upcoming data as the CB approaches a critical choice on starting rate cuts. Investors expect that 1st reduction may come in June, but it cld get pushed to later in the yr if key reports in the wks ahead show insufficient progress on taming infl’n.
• Barkin as a practice does not provide details abt his rate projections, but outlined his concerns regarding recent infl’n data – particularly his worry that enough firms still retain adequate pricing power to keep topline infl’n nos. elevated.

https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/feds-barkin-confidence-cut-rates-requires-breadth-inflation-narrow-2024-04-04/