Fed’s Barkin says US is vulnerable to inflation shocks, FT reports

(Fixes day reference in lead paragraph.)

(Reuters) – The U.S. is more vulnerable to inflationary shocks than in the past, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond President Tom Barkin said in an interview with the Financial Times published on Thursday.

Barkin said he expected inflation to continue dropping across the U.S, while cautioning that businesses were passing on costs to consumers more readily than in the past.

“We’re somewhat more vulnerable to cost shocks on the inflation side, whether they be wage-[related] or otherwise, than we might have been five years ago,” Barkin told the FT.