All eyes on Fed Chief’s Powell speech at Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium 2023

Global investors will pay close attention to Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s speech at the Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium 2023. In the last week of August, Fed Chairman Powell will appear at the Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium. Given the changing economic environment that the world’s economies are experiencing, the Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium 2023 could be a game changer.

The 2023 Economic Policy Symposium – ‘Structural Shifts in the Global Economy,’ will be held from August 24 to August 26. The full agenda and the schedule of the Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium 2023 will be hopefully available on August 24 or August 25.

Prominent central bankers, finance ministers, academics, and financial market participants from all around the world will gather in Wyoming’s Jackson Hole Valley to debate pressing economic and financial concerns. The Jackson Hole Symposium has historically been used by Fed chairs to give an update on the state of the economy and to hint at potential policy changes.

The 2023 Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium is being held at a time when most global central banks are at the fag end of taming inflation. The next challenge for the developed nations could be to maintain growth and not their economy slides into a recession.

The 2022 Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium was vastly different for the central bankers. The conference in 2022 was held from August 25 to 27, and had the theme “Reassessing Constraints on the Economy and Policy.” It was the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City’s 45th annual symposium.

Not surprisingly, the key topic surrounding the symposium in 2022 was inflation. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell reiterated that the institution will ‘use our tools forcefully’ to combat inflation in his 2022 annual speech to the symposium. Powell used the term ‘inflation’ during his Economic Policy Symposium 2022 speech.

Interestingly, during his 2022 speech, Powell warned of “some pain to households and businesses” as a fallout of raising interest rates. However, failure to restore price stability would result in far greater pain,” Powell stated during his keynote at the Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium 2022.

The larger goal of the Fed remains unfulfilled. The rate increases were intended to reduce price growth and destroy demand. The labor market and consumer demand appear strong despite a slowdown in inflation, and the US GDP growth rate likewise reflects a thriving economy.

The one thing that is certain is that the US Fed will not stop until inflation is squashed and shows no symptoms of re-emergence, as it did during the Volker era. All eyes will be on Fed Chair Powell’s assessment of the recessionary outlook, which could have long-term implications for markets and the Fed’s own monetary policies.

Annual inflation has fallen from a several-decade high of 9.1% in March 2022 to 3% in June 2023, owing largely to the US Fed’s aggressive program of hiking rates from near zero to above 5% in just over 18 months.

With headline inflation under control, core inflation is also anticipated to continue falling. What the financial markets may be concerned about is the timing of the Fed’s pivot. The markets will be on tenterhooks as they await the Federal Reserve Bank chairman’s remarks at the Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium 2023.