US Federal Reserve Chairman Powell said on the 22nd that the Federal Reserve is firmly committed to reducing inflation and is taking rapid action to restore price stability. At the same time, he acknowledged that there is a possibility of recession in the US economy. When Powell attended the hearing of the Senate Banking Committee on the same day, he said that the Federal Reserve is aware that high inflation has brought great difficulties to the people and is highly concerned about the risk of high inflation. As the inflation rate is much higher than the long-term target of 2% and the labor market is seriously in short supply, the Federal Reserve has raised interest rates at the past three regular monetary policy meetings. Last week, the Federal Reserve announced a 75 basis point increase in interest rates, the largest single rate increase since 1994. Democratic Senator elizabethwarren said at the hearing that the Federal Reserve's aggressive interest rate hike will not help alleviate the impact of the supply chain that has pushed up gasoline and food prices, but may lead to a significant increase in unemployment. She hoped that the Federal Reserve would consider carefully before "pushing the economy off a cliff". When asked by lawmakers whether raising interest rates too much or too fast might lead to economic recession, Powell said, "this is not the result the Fed wants, but it is possible.". Under the background of persistently high inflation and accelerated interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve, economists' concerns about the US economy falling into recession are heating up. According to an economist survey released by the Wall Street Journal recently, respondents believe that the possibility of economic recession in the next 12 months is 44%, much higher than the 28% in the April survey. Bill Dudley, former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, said in a Bloomberg article on the 22nd that the US economy will "inevitably" fall into recession in the next 12 to 18 months. (Xinhua News Agency)