Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Thursday that interest rates are still expected to decline further, but suggested they might not be that much lower over the next few months.

Jerome Powell noted that the economy was not signaling any distress that would necessitate an accelerated pace of rate cuts. On the contrary, he remarked, “if the data allow us to proceed a bit more gradually,

Chair Jerome Powell says the Federal Reserve will likely cut its key interest rate slowly and deliberately in the coming months, in part because inflation has shown signs of persistence and the Fed’s officials want to see where it heads next.