Fed Chair Powell indicates bank ready to start cutting its key interest rate

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on Friday indicated the bank is prepared to start cutting its key interest rate from its 23-year high, as inflation falls to more historic rates and the job market cools.

Powell did not say when rate cuts would begin or how large they might be, but the Fed is expected to announce a modest quarter-point cut in its benchmark rate when it meets in mid-September, according to the Associated Press.

“The time has come for policy to adjust,” he said in his keynote speech at the Fed’s annual economic conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.