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Fed's Goolsbee says Iran war impact looking more like an inflationary shock

Austan Goolsbee, President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, speaks during the Milken Institute Global Conference 2026 in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., May, 6, 2026.  REUTERS/Mike Blake
Austan Goolsbee, President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, speaks during the Milken Institute Global Conference 2026 in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., May, 6, 2026. REUTERS/Mike Blake Reuters

WASHINGTON - The U.S.-backed war against Iran is looking increasingly like an inflationary shock to the economy, with little apparent impact yet on jobs and growth but concerns rising about tangled supply chains and more persistent price increases, Chicago Federal Reserve President Austan Goolsbee said on Wednesday.

"It has not yet been a stagflationary-direction shock," with a blow to both the job market and inflation that would force the U.S. central bank to decide which of its goals is more at risk, Goolsbee said on a video call with journalists after participating in a Milken Institute conference in Los Angeles. "It has just been an inflationary shock. And the longer that continues, the more nervous that makes me."

(Reporting by Howard Schneider; Editing by Paul Simao)

Copyright Reuters or USA Today Network via Reuters Connect.

This story was originally published May 6, 2026 at 3:05 PM.

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