Federal Reserve official says fighting inflation likely to be ‘painful’

WASHINGTON (AP) — A top Federal Reserve official said Monday that the central bank may have to cause economic pain in the form of higher unemployment to combat stubbornly high inflation.

Austan Goolsbee, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, said in a speech in London that the Fed is facing a series of persistent supply shocks that have driven up inflation, including higher oil prices from the Iran war and tariffs. Typically, Goolsbee noted, the central bank would essentially wait for such shocks to fade and inflation to fall on its own rather than raise borrowing costs.

But faced with an ongoing series of persistent supply shocks, the Fed now has little choice but to hike rates, Goolsbee said. The increase...