WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The White House will not interfere with the Federal Reserve’s management of U.S. inflation, a White House official said when asked about Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s comments that the Fed will likely need to raise interest rates more than expected due to recent strong data.
However, the official said that it was important to remember that January’s strong jobs data represented only one month of information, and to pay attention to further data coming out later this month.
“The White House isn’t going to interfere with the Fed’s management,” the official said. “But we’re dealing with one month of data and people need to sit back and take a breath.”
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Heather Timmons and Chizu Nomiyama)
