By Michael S. Derby

NEW YORK Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President Loretta Mester said Tuesday the U.S. central bank remains committed to getting inflation down but did not offer any comment on the near term monetary policy actions.

“The Fed is committed to returning inflation to its 2 percent goal,” Mester said in the text of a speech to be given in Dublin. “We all know that high inflation makes it very hard for people to make ends meet,” she said, adding “it is a particularly onerous burden for people and businesses with fewer resources.”

Mester said high inflation also has long-run costs and longer-run economic performance, to be strong, needs price stability. Mester does not have a vote on this year’s rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee.

Mester’s speech was focused on long-term issues in the economy and she noted that it remains possible the low interest rate world that prevailed before the coronavirus pandemic struck in 2020 could return.

“Higher productivity growth would increase the potential return on new investment, and raise firms’ demand for capital, thereby raising the equilibrium interest rate,” Mester noted, while adding, “demographic forces could offset that.”

(Reporting by Michael S. Derby; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)