Fed Makes 10th Rate Increase and Opens Door to Pause
美联储第10次加息,并开启了暂停加息的大门
Federal Reserve officials raised interest rates by a quarter-point on Wednesday, the 10th straight increase in an aggressive campaign to tame rapid inflation.
周三,美联储官员加息25个基点,这是美联储采取积极措施抑制快速上升的通胀率以来,第10次连续加息。
But they also opened the door to pausing rate increases as their policies combine with bank turmoil to weigh down the economy.
但当加息政策与银行动荡相结合而拖累了经济时,美联储官员也为暂停加息打开了大门。
Central bankers lifted rates to a range of 5 to 5.25 percent, a level they had not reached since the summer of 2007. The move capped the fastest series of rate increases since the 1980s.
央行官员将利率区间上调至5%至5.25%,这是自2007年夏天以来从未达到的水平。这一举措为1980年代以来速度最快的一系列加息动作画上了句号。
But in their statement announcing the decision, policymakers also tempered language around future rate increases, saying that additional moves "may" be appropriate.
但在宣布这一决定的声明中,政策制定者对于未来加息也在措辞上留下了余地,称采取额外措施"可能"是合适的。
Jerome H. Powell, the Fed chair, underscored in a news conference following the release that any additional changes would hinge on incoming economic data.
美联储主席杰罗姆·H. 鲍威尔在消息发布后的新闻发布会上强调,任何额外的变化都将取决于随后到来的经济数据。
Taken together, those statements were a meaningful shift in the Fed's stance. For months, officials had assumed that additional increases would be needed. Now, they could stop raising interest rates at any upcoming meeting -- perhaps as soon as their gathering on June 13-14.
总而言之,这些声明表示美联储立场发生了重大转变。几个月来,官员们一直认为需要进一步提高利率。现在,接下来的任何一次会议上他们都可能不再加息--可能在最近的6月13-14日的会议上也不会加息。
Yet central bankers were careful to keep their options open at a hugely uncertain economic moment, suggesting that they could continue to raise rates if the economy and inflation prove hot.
然而,在经济充满不确定性的时刻,央行官员们注意保留了自己的选择余地,这表明如果事实证明经济和通胀过热,他们还是可能会继续加息。
"A decision on a pause was not made today," Mr. Powell said at his news conference. "We'll be driven by incoming data, meeting by meeting, and we'll approach that question at the June meeting."
"暂停加息的决定不是今天做出的。"鲍威尔在新闻发布会上说。"我们会受随后到来的数据的推动,通过一次次的会议来研究,我们将在6月份的会议上讨论这个问题。"
Stocks, which initially reacted positively to the Fed's statement, slumped after Mr. Powell's remarks suggested that a gentler rate path was not guaranteed. The S&P 500 ended the day down 0.7 percent.
股市最初对美联储的声明做出了积极反应,但在鲍威尔的言论表明不能保证更温和的利率路线后又暴跌。标准普尔500指数当天收盘下跌0.7%。
The Fed's careful stance reflects the complicated set of challenges that central bankers are confronting. The central bank is trying to tame inflation by cooling the economy, but without putting it in a deep freeze: Officials do not want unemployment to soar by more than is necessary to wrestle price increases under control.
美联储的谨慎立场反映了央行官员面临的一系列复杂挑战。央行试图通过给经济降温来抑制通胀,但也不能让经济陷入深度冻结:官员们不希望失业率飙升的幅度超过控制物价上涨所需的水平。
For now, inflation remains well above their 2 percent goal, at 4.2 percent as measured by the personal consumption expenditures index, and growth has shown signs of resilience in spite of the central bank's many rate moves.
目前,通货膨胀率仍远高于2%的目标,根据个人消费支出指数衡量,通货膨胀率为4.2%,尽管央行多次加息,但通胀率仍显示反弹迹象。
At the same time, tumult in the banking sector could slow lending and increase the odds of a recession, and an impending debt limit showdown could spark turmoil in markets, among other risks.
与此同时,银行业的动荡可能会减缓放贷速度并增加经济衰退的概率,即将到来的对债务上限问题的最终较量可能会引发市场动荡,此外还存在其他风险。
Fed officials are trying to figure out how much they expect the economy to slow in light of those developments -- and what that means for policy. "We have credit conditions tightening not just in the normal way, but perhaps a little bit more," Mr. Powell said. "We have to factor all of that in."
美联储官员正在努力弄清楚,鉴于这些事态发展,他们预计经济会放缓多少--以及这对政策意味着什么。"信贷状况不只是正常程度的收紧,可能比正常程度还要更深一些。"鲍威尔说,"我们必须把所有这些因素都考虑进去。"