LIVE: Fed Chairman Jerome Powell Speaks! Here are the Highlights from His Speech and Bitcoin’s Reaction!

After the Fed’s decision to keep interest rates constant, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell speaks live.

We are relaying Powell’s speech to you, the news will be updated as details come.

Here are excerpts from Powell’s speech:

• We are strongly tied to 2% inflation.
• Almost all policy makers are considering a few additional rate hikes this year.
• The full effects of our tightening are yet to be felt.
• Without price stability, nothing good happens in the economy for anyone.
• Some signs indicate that supply and demand are in equilibrium in the labor market. But the demand for labor still significantly exceeds the supply of workers.
• Inflation has calmed down a bit. However, inflation pressures remain high.
• We have a long road ahead of us to bring inflation back to the 2 percent target.
• We see the effects of our policy tightening in housing prices and investments.

• At this meeting, we decided that it would be a good idea to keep the rates constant, considering that we are moving fast in the rate hike.

• We will continue to make our decisions from meeting to meeting, taking into account the economic data.
• We take all the steps for the citizens.
• As we approached the end of the road, we decided to slow down a bit.
• There was no discussion about what might happen at the next meetings. It is a decision taken according to the data in the last meeting that there may be more interest rate hikes.
• Question: If you are going to continue to increase interest rates, why did you leave it fixed at this meeting?
  Powell’s answer: It’s a matter of the pace of the rate hike. You are not far from our inflation targets, and most policy makers thought it reasonable to set the pace more slowly. We will move forward by seeing the effects of the current tightening.
• We have not yet fully seen the effects of the banking crisis on tightening. The developments to be experienced here will have an impact on our interest rate decisions.
• Question: What data will the markets price for the next meeting? If the inflation data comes in line with expectations, will you still take action on the interest rate hike?
  Answer: I do not want to answer with hypotheses on this topic. It is not our intention to make a bad surprise. We are trying to control monetary policy. We’ll look at the latest data in July. According to the Fed’s decisions, the markets have to find a direction.

Fed Chairman #powell: The effects of tightening are not yet fully felt. pic.twitter.com/0tzFSuZbGb

— Bitcoin System (@bitcoinsystem) June 14, 2023

After Powell’s speech of bitcoin response:

The Fed’s chain of aggressive interest rate hikes was among the numerous causes of the Bitcoin bear market. By late 2021, the BTC price had slumped from its all-time high of $69,000 to the current level of $26,000. The fact that the central bank may be pulling its foot off the monetary brake is among the bull scenarios for Bitcoin in 2023 and beyond.

Alongside the rate decision, the Fed has released its latest quarterly economic forecasts, with members projecting a final funds rate of 5.6% in 2023, compared to the 5.1% expected in March. The final funding rate projected to be 4.6% at the end of 2024 is lower than the 4.3% projected in March.

In the statement made by the institution regarding the interest rate decision, it was stated, “Keeping the target range fixed at this meeting allows the committee to evaluate additional information.” Officials unanimously approved the rate decision.

After keeping interest rates close to zero after the Covid epidemic, the FED had increased the interest rate by a total of 5 percentage points in every meeting since March 2022, the fastest increase since the 1980s. Authorities have slowed their increases this year, raising interest rates by a quarter point in the last three meetings, most recently in May.

*Not investment advice.