FED CHAIR POWELL SEES PROGRESS ON INFLATION, THOUGH NOT QUICKLY ENOUGH

Inflation may be cooling - just not yet fast enough for the Federal Reserve.

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Chair Jerome Powell offered a nuanced view Wednesday of how the Fed intends to address its core challenge at a time when inflation is both way below its peak but still well above the central bank's 2% target: Give it more time, and maybe some help from additional interest rate hikes.

Yet on a hopeful note, Powell also suggested that the trends that are needed to further slow inflation, from lower apartment rents to slower growing wages, are starting to click into place.

As a result, the Fed decided Wednesday to forgo another increase in its benchmark interest rate, leaving it at about 5.1%. The pause followed 10 straight hikes in 15 months - the fastest series of increases in four decades.

By leaving rates alone, at least for now, Powell and other top Fed officials hope to use the extra time to more fully assess how higher borrowing rates have affected inflation and the economy. They also want to see whether the collapse of three large banks this spring will weigh on lending and growth.

In a surprisingly hawkish signal, the Fed's policymakers issued projections Wednesday showing they envision as many as two additional quarter-point rate hikes before the year ends. (In Fed parlance, "hawks" generally favor higher rates to quell inflation, while "doves" typically advocate lower rates to aid a healthy job market.) Before this week's policy meeting, Fed watchers had expected the policymakers to signal just one more rate increase this year.