Goolsbee says Fed is not on track back to 2 percent

Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee said on Friday that the Federal Reserve is not currently on a path back to 2 percent inflation, with price pressures spreading beyond energy and tariffs into services and medical care.

Why it matters: Goolsbee is the latest senior official to line up behind further tightening after October's inflation data, and his warning that the AI data centre buildout is itself pushing prices up ties the December rate decision directly to the investment boom.

Data as of Goolsbee interview on CNBC's Squawk Box, Friday November 13, 2026, as reported by BigGo Finance and read in full in this run, corroborated by wire flash summaries of the same interview in the feed queue. Developing item.

“If you ask whether we’re on a path back to 2 percent, my sense is that we are not right now, and we need to address this,” Chicago Federal Reserve President Austan Goolsbee told CNBC’s Squawk Box on Friday. He said price pressures are spreading beyond energy and tariff costs into services and medical care, which are unlikely to cool significantly in the near term, and pointed to the data centre construction boom driven by the artificial intelligence race as a source of strong demand that is lifting prices.

Goolsbee said the Fed cannot treat inflation as temporary and look through it if demand is overheating, and that it could take more aggressive action if the data show inflation worsening. Even a rapid fall in crude prices would not fully relieve energy pressure, he added, because refining capacity constraints would keep diesel and jet fuel prices elevated.

Goolsbee says Fed is not on track back to 2 percent

Sources