Loretta Mester, Interview: CNN

“Yeah. You have to be forward looking. Monetary policy affects the economy with the lag, long and variable lags. You don’t know exactly when. But we should be able to start seeing the monthly increases in inflation moving down. Some of that will be dependent on monetary policy, some of it will be because supply conditions and those constraints from the bottlenecks and the other constraints on supply probably will ease this year. Certainly the businesses we talk to, many of them think that it’ll ease in the second half of this year, or some think it’ll be next year. But they all expect that some easing in that, and that also will lead to lower inflation rates. So I think it’s going to be a combination, which is why I think inflation will be moving down this year. But it’ll remain above 2%. So I think the job one for us now is to remove emergency accommodation in a way that it’ll control inflation and maintain the expansion in healthy labor markets. That’s what’s going to determine our path. It’s always looking at our dual mandate goals and that’s our guide.”