Fed officials see tariffs impact

But unsure if effects fleeting or persistent

- HOWARD SCHNEIDER

Federal Reserve officials said on Tuesday that higher prices are coming on the back of rising US import tariffs and counseled patience before making any interest rate decisions as it is unclear whether the inflation shock will be fleeting or more persistent.

“One thing that we've heard is that a lot of the tariff impact to date has actually not shown up in the numbers yet. There's been a lot of front-running, building inventories and all those sorts of things. And we are hearing from an increasing number of businesses that those strategies ... are starting to run their course,” Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic said on the sidelines of a conference in Florida.

“If these pre-tariff strategies have run their course, we're about to see some changes in prices, and then we're going to learn how consumers are going to respond to that,’ said Mr Bostic, who now expects the US central bank will have to wait longer for clarity about the economy's direction and make any changes to interest rates.