Fed boss to discuss uneven recovery and inflation before Congress

Reprise

, acceleration of job gains in the months ahead: the chairman of the US central bank will introduce on Tuesday a economy on track during a hearing before Congress, despite inflation that is

accelerated in recent months.

Read also: The Fed maintains its ultra-stimulating policy

Jerome Powell, whose prepared speech was released late Monday, reiterates that the Fed will continue to do everything possible to support the economy

.

Conversely, he still does not give any details on the timetable envisaged to reduce support for the economy while the rise in prices is faster than expected. He also intends to reaffirm his concern that the recovery is uneven, with unemployment hitting low-wage workers and black and Hispanic people ever harder.

Jerome Powell is scheduled to testify Tuesday before a special House of Representatives subcommittee on how the Federal Reserve has responded to the crisis.

This hearing comes less than a week after the meeting of the Fed's Monetary Committee.

Inflation worries the markets

At the end of this meeting, last Wednesday, the Fed unveiled a more optimistic growth forecast since it now expects gross domestic product (GDP) to rise by 7.0% in 2021, against an estimate of 6, 5% in March.

His unemployment forecast for this year is unchanged.

And the return to full employment, i.e. to the pre-crisis level of 3.5%, the lowest in 50 years, is expected in 2023.

It is above all inflation that worries the markets. It should reach 3.4% this year, against 2.4% estimated in March, before stabilizing near the target of 2%, at 2.1% in 2022 and 2.2% in 2023. Jerome Powell will maintain before Congress that inflation is linked to transitory factors with a truncated base effect since prices are to be compared with prices which had collapsed last year under the effect of the paralysis of the economy.