US Federal Reserve Chairman Powell said on the 7th that the Federal Reserve may raise the federal funds rate to a higher level than expected at a faster rate. When Powell attended the hearing held by the Senate Banking Committee of the United States Congress on the same day, he said that the recent economic data exceeded expectations, which means that the final level of the federal funds rate "is likely to be higher than previously expected". If all the data point to the need to accelerate the tightening measures, the Federal Reserve will be prepared to accelerate the pace of interest rate increase. Powell said that in the past year, the Federal Reserve has taken strong measures to tighten monetary policy, but so far, the policy effect "has not yet fully manifested". Although inflation in the United States has slowed down since the middle of 2022, it is still far higher than the long-term target of 2%, indicating that the Federal Reserve has more work to do in combating inflation. He said that the U.S. economic growth has slowed sharply since last year, but the labor market is still extremely tense, so the Federal Reserve will continue to tighten its monetary policy stance. Considering the cumulative tightening effect of monetary policy, the lag of monetary policy's impact on economic activity and inflation, and the economic and financial market conditions, the Federal Reserve has slowed down the pace of interest rate increase in the past two monetary policy meetings, and will make decisions in the future based on economic data and policy impact at each meeting. Since the beginning of the current interest rate increase cycle in March 2022, the Federal Reserve has raised interest rates by 450 basis points, but the inflation level in the United States has remained high. The latest data released by the US Department of Commerce shows that the US consumer spending price index rose 0.6% month-on-month in January, the highest level since last June. Data from the US Department of Labor showed that the US consumer price index rose 0.5% month-on-month in January, the highest level since last October. (Xinhua News Agency)