Chicago Federal Reserve President Austan Goolsbee said July's softer CPI reading was encouraging, but he wants three to four consecutive months of data like June's before concluding inflation is moving durably back toward the Fed's 2% target. July 2026 consumer prices rose 3.4% from a year earlier, down from 3.5% in June; core CPI increased 2.5% year over year and 0.2% from the prior month, while headline CPI rose 0.1% month over month. Goolsbee, who backed holding rates steady at the July FOMC meeting, said tariff shocks and higher energy costs appear to be fading but warned inflation had moved in the wrong direction for five to six months beforehand and remains too high. The Fed left rates unchanged for a fifth straight meeting even as three policymakers dissented in favor of a 25 basis point hike, while federal funds futures and CME FedWatch pricing now show lower expectations for a September increase. He said the Fed's past inflation battles and the post-pandemic surge above 7% in 2022, with inflation still above target for more than five years, have made him more cautious about easing too soon, and he added that weak retail sales and softer productivity data also warrant attention.