PANews reported on February 11 that according to Jinshi, Federal Reserve Chairman Powell began two days of congressional testimony on Tuesday, and he delivered a simple message to Congress: Because the economic situation is good, the Fed can calmly decide when and whether to cut interest rates. Nick Timiraos, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal who is known as the "Fed's mouthpiece", pointed out that Fed officials are encouraged by recent inflation data, which show that price pressures continue to remain at a moderate level, meaning that inflation may soon be closer to the Fed's 2% target. But they are worried that potential policy changes under the Trump administration, including his more aggressive use of tariffs compared with his first term, could raise the prices of imported goods, thereby undermining their final stage of fighting inflation.

Timiraos said the U.S. economy has proven far stronger. It has so far withstood the effects of those tighter policies, driven by strong consumer spending, high asset prices and the aftereffects of aggressive stimulus measures taken by the U.S. government in 2020 and 2021 to support the economy. By the end of last year, the Fed’s preferred inflation measure, the PCE price index, had fallen to 2.6%, down from a peak of 7.2% in 2022.