Jerome H. Powell, the chair of the Federal Reserve, stated on Friday that resilient financial progress is giving the central financial institution the flexibleness to be affected person earlier than slicing rates of interest.

Fed officers raised rates of interest sharply from early 2022 to mid-2023, they usually have left them at about 5.3 p.c since final July. That comparatively excessive stage basically faucets the brakes on the financial system, partially by making it costly to borrow to purchase a home or begin a enterprise. The aim is to maintain charges excessive sufficient, for lengthy sufficient, to wrestle inflation again below management.

However value will increase have cooled notably in current months — inflation ran at 2.5 p.c in February, a report on Friday confirmed, far under its 7.1 p.c peak in 2022 for that gauge and simply barely above the Fed’s 2 p.c aim. On condition that slowdown, officers have been contemplating when and the way a lot they’ll minimize rates of interest this 12 months.

Whereas traders have been initially hopeful that price cuts would come early within the 12 months and be substantial, Fed officers have not too long ago struck a cautious tone, sustaining that they need larger confidence that inflation was below management. Mr. Powell reiterated that message on Friday.

“We will, and we might be, cautious about this determination — as a result of we may be,” Mr. Powell stated, talking in a question-and-answer session with the “Market” host Kai Ryssdal in San Francisco. “The financial system is powerful: We see very robust progress.”

Friday’s Private Consumption Expenditures report confirmed that customers are nonetheless spending at a speedy clip. Current hiring knowledge has additionally remained strong. In all, the financial system appears to be holding up even with the Fed’s excessive rates of interest.

“That signifies that we don’t have to be in a rush to chop,” Mr. Powell stated. “It means we are able to wait and develop into extra assured that, actually, inflation is coming right down to 2 p.c on a sustainable foundation.”

The Fed is making an attempt to steadiness two dangers: On one hand, officers don’t wish to preserve rates of interest too excessive for too lengthy, risking an pointless recession. On the opposite, they don’t wish to minimize rates of interest too early, earlier than inflation is absolutely below management.

If excessive inflation lingers for years on finish, it might probably develop into embedded within the financial system as folks and firms regulate their habits, making it even more durable to stamp out in the long term.

Traders at present anticipate that the Fed may start reducing charges in June. Fed officers projected final week that they have been prone to make three quarter-point price cuts earlier than the tip of this 12 months.

Whereas the financial system appears to be like robust for now, Mr. Powell instructed that if the job market started to indicate indicators of cracking, the Fed may react.

“If we have been to see surprising weak point within the labor market,” Mr. Powell stated, “then that’s one thing we might be taking a look at rigorously, and will draw a response as properly.”

The Fed chair stated that whereas there may be at all times an opportunity of a recession, he didn’t assume that the danger was excessive in the meanwhile.

“There’s no motive to assume that the financial system is in a recession or is on the edge of 1,” Mr. Powell stated.

“However — humility,” he added.

And Mr. Powell repeatedly alluded to the elephant within the room because the nation barrels towards November’s presidential election: the politics of rate of interest cuts. There’s a danger that the central financial institution might be criticized for slicing borrowing prices within the run-up to the election, since doing so might help markets and the financial system and may be perceived as favoring the incumbent.

Former President Donald J. Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, has already criticized the Fed for being political and stated that Mr. Powell was “going to do one thing to most likely assist the Democrats.” Mr. Trump first elevated Mr. Powell to the position of Fed chair, although he has since been reappointed to the position by President Biden.

The Fed is unbiased of the White Home, and its officers stress that they set coverage with an eye fixed on the financial system, not politics. Mr. Powell reiterated that on Friday.

“Integrity is every part,” Mr. Powell stated. “We’re working to serve all People, not any explicit set of People or political events or leaders.”