NAR US Existing-Home Sales Report Shows 5.1% Increase in December

Good morning! And thank you for that kind introduction. It’s great to be here with you. I’d like to thank Chellie1 and the Chamber team for the invitation to speak today. The Chamber and the Philly Fed have a long-standing and important partnership on many programs and that includes the annual Chamber State of the Economy survey that many of you will have filled out. Your input helps us understand the economy and the range of ways organizations and individuals are experiencing and shaping it. You provide the stories behind the data that are a key input into my thinking about monetary policy. My goal today is to leave you with a sense of the important national economic trends and how those trends are playing out here in Philadelphia. I’ll also share some findings from a recent survey that our team did to identify barriers to employment for Philadelphia residents. I hope this will provide good background for the panel discussion focusing on opportunities to create great jobs here in the region. Before I get into the details, please note that I am speaking just for myself and that my views don’t necessarily reflect those of any of my Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) colleagues. Economic Outlook As many of you know, Congress has charged the FOMC with delivering maximum employment and price stability. We define price stability to mean inflation of two percent, as measured by the change in the personal consumption expenditure price index, affectionately know Fed's Paulson: Sees further rate cuts later this year if forecast met. FED’S PAULSON: INFLATION SHOULD BE AROUND 2% RUN RATE BY YEAR END FED’S PAULSON: MONETARY POLICY IS ‘A LITTLE RESTRICTIVE’ RIGHT NOW FED’S PAULSON: IS CAUTIOUSLY OPTIMISTIC ON INFLATION MOVING BACK TO TARGET Fed's Paulson: The US is likely to grow around 2% this year.

Business inventories in the United States were up by 0.3% in October 2025 compared to the month prior, reaching $2.67 billion, the US Census Bureau announced in its report on ...