"While tariffs are highly likely to generate at least a temporary rise in inflation, it's also possible the effects will be more persistent," Powell told the audience at the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing conference in Washington, D.C.

Jerome H. Powell, chair of the Federal Reserve, says the central bank’s “obligation” is to ensure that a “one-time increase in the price level does not become an ongoing inflation problem.”

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is set to take the stage on Friday in the wake of the latest snapshot of the U.S. labor conditions and another round of surprisingly robust tariff hikes from the White House.