New York Fed President: 'Seeing signs of inflation slowing,' but it is 'still very high'

In an exclusive interview with Yahoo Finance's Jennifer Schonberger, New York Federal Reserve Bank President John Williams made it clear he is still focused on fighting inflation.

"We are seeing signs of inflation slowing, but inflation is still very high." He goes on to say, "some of this core services inflation, excluding housing, that hasn't budged yet" and that the Fed has its "work cut out for us to get inflation back to 2%."

Williams also says he is "very much watching for" any continued fallout from the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank and that the banking system has "really stabilized."

Click here to see the full interview with the New York Fed's John Williams.

Key video moments:

00:09 "Inflation has started to come down"

00:24 Where the U.S. is seeing inflation come down

00:53 "Inflation is still very high"

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JENNIFER SCHONBERGER: So then given your assessment of the job market and new developments we've seen with OPEC cutting back on oil production, how does that inform your outlook for inflation.

JOHN WILLIAMS: Well, you know, inflation has started to come down. It peaked for the-- last year, around 7% on the personal consumptions, expenditure, price index that we follow at the Fed. It's down to about 5%, still way above our 2% goal. We're seeing inflation come down mostly now in the commodities and the goods prices. And I think that does reflect some of the pandemic effects, you know, fading.

We're seeing supply chains opening up much more globally. So those things are all good to bring down those factors of inflation. We're also seeing some signs that demand for housing is slowing. We're seeing then in the housing data. We're also seeing that in the rent data for the new, you know, rents that people are signing new lease, you know, their new leases on.

So we're seeing signs of inflation slowing, but inflation is still very high. And I would just mention that, you know, some of this core services inflation, excluding housing, that hasn't budged yet. So still got our work cut out for us to get inflation back to 2%