On Tuesday’s broadcast of Newsmax TV’s “Rob Schmitt Tonight,” White House Senior Counselor for Trade and Manufacturing Peter Navarro stated that the June inflation number “was a good number” because “it was below expectations, which I think is the key figure.”
Host Rob Schmitt asked, “I want to talk inflation for a second. 2.7, the annual rate for June. That is up from 2.4, May, 2.3, April, the months prior. What’s your response to that? I know the White House still says we’re under three, that’s good. But it’s moving in that direction that, in a way, I think, some people would say, vindicates some of Jerome Powell’s concerns.”
Navarro responded, “No, not at all. And it was below expectations, which I think is the key figure. I think that what we’re seeing here is with the energy sector, in particular with oil prices, that helps pull down prices everywhere else. We definitely believe the Federal Reserve is at least 50 to 100 basis points behind the curve. If you look at where interest rates are in the rest of the world. We’re clearly the ones who are the holdout in terms of lowering things. We watch this carefully. The last thing we want is a stagflationary event like the ’70s. But this was a good number in that it was below expectations.”
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