Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said a so-called "soft landing" for the US economy is a primary objective for the central bank.

"A soft landing is our primary objective," Powell told reporters Wednesday during a press conference following the central bank's two-day policy meeting in Washington.

"That's what we've been trying to achieve for all this time," Powell said. "The real point, though, is the worst thing we can do is to fail to restore price stability, because the record is clear on that. If you don't restore price stability, inflation comes back."

Fed officials at the conclusion of the meeting decided to leave their benchmark federal funds rate unchanged, and published projections indicating most of them expected one more increase later this year would be appropriate.

At the previous meeting in July, officials voted to raise the target range for the rate to a 22-year high of 5.25% to 5.5%, marking the latest hike in a historic tightening campaign that began in March 2022.

Source : Bloomberg