Fed’s Mester warns high rents mean inflation may not yet have peaked

(Reuters) – The high cost of rental accommodation in the United States has not yet fully filtered through to inflation measures, suggesting inflation may still rise further, Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank President Loretta Mester said on Wednesday

“I’m not even convinced that inflation’s peaked yet,” Mester said in a webcast with Market News International, saying her focus is on the services sector. “That tends to be much more persistent and rents are still very elevated and it takes a while for rents to show up in underlying inflation. There’s still more that’s going to show up on that side…I haven’t seen much in the way of suggesting that’s starting to come back down.”

(Reporting by Lindsay Dunsmuir; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)