Fed’s Goolsbee expects easing shelter inflation to seal path to 2%

(Reuters) – Chicago Federal Reserve Bank President Austan Goolsbee on Friday said the U.S. central bank will “do what it takes” to bring inflation down to the Fed’s 2% goal, but that inflation looks to be already on that track if housing price pressures ease as expected.

“The overwhelmingly important thing of whether we are going to clearly be on path for inflation is what happens to house price inflation,” Goolsbee said at the Chicago Fed’s annual Community Bankers Symposium. “If we hit the targets that we expect to hit, then we would be on path to get to 2%, and that’s what I call the golden path — no recession, and it gets down — but that housing inflation is the thing we should really keep an eye on.”

(Reporting by Ann Saphir)