Jerome Powell warns on Trump's tariffs: High inflation could be here to stay

[UpInArms]

Source: CNN

Washington
CNN
—
Inflation is likely to pick up because of President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs, and could remain elevated, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Friday.

“We face a highly uncertain outlook with elevated risks of both higher unemployment and higher inflation,” he said at an event just outside Washington, DC. “While tariffs are highly likely to generate at least a temporary rise in inflation, it is also possible that the effects could be more persistent.”

Powell’s latest comments, his most vivid yet on the subject, come just days after the Trump administration unveiled the sharpest ever escalation in US tariffs on data going back 200 years, Fitch Ratings told CNN — even steeper than the expansive tariffs deployed under the Smoot-Hawley Act of 1930. A 10% tariff on all US imports will go into effect on Saturday, with even higher tariffs slated for April 9.

The US is about to have the highest tariff rate of any advanced economy
The US tariff rate on all imports would be around 22% — up from 1.5% in 2022.

Applied tariff rate, weighted mean of all products in 2022

Table showing that the US is about to have the highest tariff rate in 2025, far away any industrialized economy. In 2022, the U.S. had a tariff rate of 2022, in 2025 would be 22%, according to a Fitch projection.

South Korea
5.7%
Turkey
4.3%
Colombia
2.8%
Israel
2.6%
Norway
2.3%
New Zealand
1.7%
Japan
1.6%
Iceland
1.6%
Mexico
1.6%
United States
1.5%
20.5%
Canada
1.4%
Trump's 2025 tariff proposal would be 22% according to Fitch
22.00%



Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/04/economy/jerome-powell-fed-tariffs-jobs/index.html