US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen sat down with Yahoo Finance Senior Reporter Jennifer Schonberger for an exclusive interview on Monday, June 24. Secretary Yellen addresses an array of topics, from housing affordability issues within the United States to inflation under the Federal Reserve's 2% inflation rate target.
"One of the pieces that has been keeping inflation above the Fed's target is housing costs. The prices rental prices for new apartments have stabilized and, in many parts of the country, come down," Yellen states. "But people who have existing contracts really only see changes in their rental prices when their contracts renew."
Like many other regulators, Yellen is monitoring incoming inflation data and employment prints before committing to any interest rate forecasts.
"They [Fed officials] certainly don't want to cause a recession when it's unnecessary. And that's the balancing act," Yellen tells Schonberger. "I think we've got a good, strong economy..."
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This post was written by Luke Carberry Mogan.