Fed's Hammack: a restrictive stance is appropriate to finish the job on inflation
The Cleveland Fed president favors smaller adjustments made relatively quickly.
The Fed · Monday, October 12, 2026 · 3:45 PM ET
Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack said Monday that a restrictive policy stance is appropriate to bring inflation back to 2%, and that she prefers smaller adjustments made relatively quickly (Cleveland Fed, Reuters).
What she said
Speaking at the National Association for Business Economics annual meeting in Cleveland, Hammack said "a restrictive monetary policy stance is appropriate to ensure a timely return to 2 percent inflation." She said inflation is elevated, with August headline PCE inflation at 3.4% and core PCE at 3.0%, and that her baseline forecast is that inflation will take some time to return to 2% even with appropriate policy. She said a levelling off or decline in energy prices would help, but that demand-side pressures "are not self-correcting."
She said that when feasible she prefers to make smaller adjustments, and to do so relatively quickly, rather than wait and risk a larger course correction. Reuters reports she feels inflation has become more broad-based and is starting to influence firms' price-setting plans. The view is conditional: she said convincing signs of labor market weakness would call for a different path, while inflation staying above her forecast could require "pointing the bow of monetary policy rates toward an even higher latitude." She also said the reaction function she describes is not a prediction for policy.
Why it matters this week
September consumer and producer inflation data are due later this week (Reuters). For another Fed view this month, see Waller: more rate hikes likely, but not at every meeting. The full calendar is in our week-ahead story. Fed officials' views are their own, not a decision by the committee.