Organization: Powell's term is coming to an end facing a "delicate balance" between employment and prices.

The institution's evaluation of the US CPI report for January pointed out that the January CPI increased by 2.4% year-on-year, lower than the previous value and market expectations; after excluding the volatile food and energy, the core CPI increased by 2.5% year-on-year, meeting expectations. Earlier this week, the non-farm payroll report showed that job growth in January exceeded expectations with the unemployment rate dropping to 4.3%. Despite slowing inflation and strong employment being positive factors, Federal Reserve Chairman Powell faces a delicate balance in the last few months of his eight-year term: he must curb inflation without harming the labor market. Aggressive rate hikes had previously fought off the 2022 surge in prices, but as inflation subsides and the job market cools down, the Federal Reserve has cut interest rates by nearly 2 percentage points since the summer of 2024, pausing in January. With signs of weakening price pressures, economists widely predict that inflation will further decline in 2026.