Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said recent signs of economic health would allow the central bank to take its time in deciding how quickly to continue reducing interest rates, including by potentially slowing down the pace of cuts.

The U.S. economy is in strong shape, Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell said Thursday, which means the central bank can move carefully as it cuts interest rates. Why it matters: The direction of Fed policy is clear — the central bank is likely to cut interest rates further — but Powell's remarks indicate that it is uncertain how fast and how far those rate reductions will be.

Chair Jerome Powell said Thursday that the Federal Reserve will likely cut its key interest rate slowly and deliberately in the coming months, in part because i

Ongoing economic growth, a solid job market, and inflation that remains above the 2% target means the U.S. central bank does not need to rush to lower interest rates and can deliberate carefully, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said on Thursday.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the recent performance of the US economy has been “remarkably good,” giving central bankers room to lower interest rates at a careful pace.

If that is sustained and we are in a structurally more productive economy going forward, then that tells me we probably wouldn’t end up cutting quite as far.”

Minneapolis Fed President Kashkari on Saturday said there would probably be fewer interest rate cuts than expected if the U.S. economy stayed strong. Read more here.

Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis President Neel Kashkari said the US economy has remained remarkably strong as the central bank progressed in beating back inflation, but the Fed was still “not all the way home.