The Fed chair made the remarks, his first public words since the FOMC’s November meeting, at an event with the Dallas Regional Chamber.

Chair Jerome Powell said Thursday that 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.

US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the recent performance of the US economy has been “remarkably good”, giving central bankers room to lower interest rates at a careful pace – comments that seem to indicate the pace of the rate cut cycle could be slower than anticipated.