Powell expects Fed to make 3 rate cuts this year

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell vowed that the central bank would proceed carefully with interest rate cuts this year, expressing confidence in the economy.

In an interview with CBS's “CBS's 60 Minutes," Powell promised he wouldn’t be affected by this year’s presidential election.

“We want to see more evidence that inflation is moving sustainably down to 2%,” Powell said. “Our confidence is rising. We just want some more confidence before we take that very important step of beginning to cut interest rates.”

Fed officials still expect to make about three quarter-point rate cuts this year, according to Powell.

“We're focused on the real economy and doing the right thing for the economy and for the American people over the medium and long term,” Powell said, adding that the Fed has to balance the risk of moving too soon or too late.

This interview came after the Federal Reserve fixed interest rates at the current range of 5.25% to 5.5% during its meeting last week.

It also came one day before the January jobs report, which showed that the US economy added more jobs than expected and maintained strong wage growth.