Raphael Bostic is a bird-watcher. When he鈥檚 not watching the economy in the southeast U.S. he likes to grab his binoculars and look for birds.
When he鈥檚 looking at the economy, he would be considered a hawk.
鈥淚nflation is too high. We have to get it under control, and we need to be laser focused on making sure that everything we do is contributing to that,鈥� he told The Florida Roundup on Friday.
Bostic is the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, the regional central bank that includes Florida.
In December, he called inflation 鈥渕ore urgent and definitive risk to the U.S. economy鈥� and on Friday he stuck by that warning.
He appeared on The Florida Roundup before the New York Times reported Sunday the Justice Department is investigating Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. The probe centers on Powell鈥檚 congressional testimony last summer regarding the renovation of the central bank鈥檚 Washington, D.C. headquarters. Powell responded in a video statement calling the investigation part of a pressure campaign by the Trump administration to have the agency cut its target interest rates.
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Before news of the investigation was made public, Bostic continued to point to inflation as a bigger concern between the two goals of the Fed; steady prices and maximum employment.
鈥淎 lot of the actual cost pressures are happening outside of tariffs,鈥� he said, pointing to health care and insurance as two drivers of higher prices.
Consumer inflation was 2.7% nationwide in November, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Critics and some economists pointed out that the monthly figure may not be accurate due to the lengthy government shutdown in October leading to missing data points.
The central bank鈥檚 favored inflation gauge, the Price Consumption Expenditures Price Index indicated prices had risen 2.8% in September from a year ago.
鈥淭hat is 50% higher than our target,鈥� Bostic acknowledged. The Fed鈥檚 stated long-term inflation target is 2%, which was last experienced more than four and a half years ago.
鈥淭he thing I worry about is people losing confidence that we are going to actually get to 2%,鈥� he said.
Bostic鈥檚 concerns puts him a little at odds with many of his Federal Reserve colleagues. The Fed鈥檚 short-term interest rate setting committee cut its borrowing rate three times last year for a cumulative reduction of 1%. The cuts came even as inflation remained well above the bank鈥檚 target. (The Fed鈥檚 main tool to fight inflation is to raise borrowing rates.)
Central bankers meet later this month for the first time in 2026. It will be Bostic鈥檚 final meeting as head of the Atlanta Fed. He is retiring at the end of February.
The Atlanta Fed is not a voting member of the agency鈥檚 Federal Open Market Committee, the interest rate-setting panel, this year. The group is expected to make no changes to borrowing rates at its late January meeting, a sign the bankers believe the economic risks between higher inflation and higher unemployment are well-balanced.
鈥娾�漈he job market is definitely cooler than it has been for the last three or four years,鈥� Bostic acknowledged, but he added a cooler job market is not necessarily a weak job market.
Florida鈥檚 unemployment rate hit a four-year high in November. Yet, at 4.2%, it remains below a level generally regarded as full employment. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the national unemployment rate was 4.4% in December as hiring slowed. American firms added 50,000 new jobs.
鈥溾�奍 think one of the issues that we are watching closely is pressure in terms of finding workers,鈥� Bostic said, 鈥減articularly in segments that had a lot of foreign-born workers. We're starting to hear that there are some stresses happening there.鈥�
There are about 1 million fewer foreign-born workers in the labor force since February, the first month after President Donald Trump was sworn into office and began an unprecedented immigration enforcement crackdown.
