ARLINGTON, Va. — Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said Friday that President Donald Trump's "Liberation Day" global tariffs will lead to "higher inflation and slower growth" in the coming months.

"While tariffs are highly likely to generate at least a temporary rise in inflation, it's also possible that the effects could be more persistent," Powell said at a conference of business journalists in suburban Washington.

Powell cautioned that the Federal Reserve board will wait to see how Trump's tariff policies get implemented to decide whether to adjust interest rates.

"To me, it's not clear what the appropriate path for monetary policy will be," Powell said. "And we're going to need to wait and see how this plays out before we can start to make those adjustments."

The Fed chairman weighed in on the potential impact of tariffs two days after Trump unveiled a sweeping set of duties on imports from dozens of countries across the globe, including longtime economic allies and small countries that buy little from the United States.

"We have stressed that it would be very difficult to assess the likely economic effects of higher tariffs until there is greater certainty about the details, such as what will be tariffed, at what level and for what duration, and the extent of any retaliation from our trading partners," he said. "While uncertainty remains elevated, it is now becoming clear that tariff increases will be significantly larger than expected, and the same is likely to be true of economic effects, which will include higher inflation. The size and duration of these facts remains uncertain."

Trump's tariffs, ranging from a baseline of 10% for imports from Singapore to as high as 46% for goods made in Vietnam, have reverberated through the economy, causing a large selloff of stocks on Wall Street on Thursday that was worsening on Friday.

Powell spoke late Friday morning at the annual Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing conference, an appearance that was scheduled before Trump set his “Liberation Day” tariff announcement on Wednesday at the White House.

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