Fed's Waller: Not clear bank failures had a material effect on credit tightening
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Federal Reserve officials struck a hawkish tone in their first comments since the central bank held the policy interest rate steady at its meeting this week but signaled that rate hikes will likely resume. "Core inflation is not coming down like I thought it would," Federal Reserve Gov. Christopher Waller said at an economics conference in Norway. In earlier prepared remarks he said that changes in U.S. credit conditions since the failure of Silicon Valley Bank in early March were "in line" with financial tightening that was already underway due to Federal Reserve interest rate increases -- comments that downplayed the idea a worse-than-anticipated contraction in credit might make further Fed rate increases less necessary.