By Howard Schneider

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said on Tuesday the central bank is in a “challenging situation” with an ongoing risk of faster-than-expected inflation at the same time that weak job growth has raised concern about the health of the labor market.

In comments prepared for delivery to Rhode Island’s Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce, Powell offered little indication of when he thinks the Fed might next cut interest rates, noting that there was danger to both cutting too fast and risking a new surge of inflation, or reducing rates too slowly and possibly causing unemployment to rise unnecessarily.

“Near-term risks to inflation are tilted to the upside and risks to employment to the downside – a challenging situation,” Powell said, rep

See Full Page