Fed's COLLINS said she currently supports keeping the policy rate unchanged,
conditional on further evidence of DISINFLATION toward the Fed's 2% target. She
wrote that maintaining the current target range requires continued evidence that
inf is falling; if such evidence does not appear, she would tighten policy as
soon as possible. Recent releases show modest underlying price pressures, which
she called somewhat encouraging, but monthly data are noisy and persistence is
uncertain. COLLINS said tight policy and higher long-term yields should help
ease some inflationary pressure from strong household and business spending, and
that earlier tariff effects have largely faded while the pass-through from
rising oil prices should begin to wane.
