At 10:00 p.m. Beijing time on August 26, US Federal Reserve Chairman Powell reiterated in his annual speech at the Jackson Hole symposium that the primary objective of the current Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) is to reduce the US inflation rate to the target level of 2%< Br > < div class = "height" > < / div > “price stability is the responsibility of the Federal Reserve and the cornerstone of the economy.” Powell said that without stable prices, it will be impossible to achieve a strong labor market that will benefit all people in the long term, and the burden of high inflation will often fall on those who have weak financial ability< Br > < div class = "height" > < / div > Powell also said that it “takes some time” to restore price stability, and it needs to “forcefully” use policy tools to achieve a better balance between demand and supply. In other words, reducing inflation may require a period of sustained “below trend” economic growth, and the labor market is likely to show some weakness< Br > < div class = "height" > < / div > “although higher interest rates, slower growth and a weak labor market will reduce inflation, they will also bring some pain to families and enterprises. These are the unfortunate costs of reducing inflation, but failure to restore price stability will mean greater pain.” Powell said< Br > < div class = "height" > < / div > in assessing the recent economy, Powell said that although the latest economic data were mixed, the US economy still showed strong momentum. The current labor market is particularly strong, but its supply and demand are obviously unbalanced. At the same time, although the inflation data in July has decreased, the improvement of the data in a single month is far from the extent that FOMC can be confident that inflation has decreased< Br > < div class = "height" > < / div > on the policy details in September, Powell said that the rate increase at the policy meeting in September would depend on the “overall” economic data and changes in the economic outlook. With the further tightening of monetary policy stance, it may be “appropriate” to slow down the pace of interest rate increase at some time< Br > < div class = "height" > < / div > Powell also said that in order to restore the stability of prices, it may be necessary to maintain a restrictive policy stance for a period of time in the future. History has warned the Federal Reserve not to “prematurely” relax policy. Meanwhile, the latest personal forecast of FOMC members shows that the median federal funds rate will be slightly lower than 4% by the end of 2023. Committee members will update their forecasts at the September meeting< Br > < div class = "height" > < / div > “our consideration and decision-making of monetary policy are based on the study of the past inflation path, which includes the high inflation in the 1970s and 1980s to the low and stable inflation in the past 25 years.” Powell said that the FOMC has learned three important lessons: first, the central bank can and should be responsible for inflation; Second, the public’s expectation of inflation should be included in the interest rate decision-making; Third, the monetary policy must continue until the target dust is settled< Br > < div class = "height" > < / div > “history shows that as high inflation becomes more entrenched in wages and prices, the employment cost of reducing inflation may increase accordingly.” Powell said that in the early 1980s, Volcker succeeded in fighting inflation, but before that, there had been many failures in fighting inflation for 15 years, which ultimately required a long-term tight monetary policy to curb high inflation. At present, the goal of FOMC is to avoid such an outcome by taking decisive actions.