The Globe and Mail reports in its Thursday, July 27, edition that the U.S. Federal Reserve signalled Wednesday that a month of impressive inflation data is not enough to sway it from its path to higher interest rates. The Globe's David Parkinson writes that a summer of impressive data, however, just might. Fed chairman Jerome Powell told a news conference, minutes after the Fed raised its benchmark federal funds rate target to a 22-year high, "It's only one report, one month's data." Mr. Powell was talking about the June consumer price index report that came out two weeks ago, showing that the U.S. inflation rate had tumbled to a 27-month low of just 3 per cent, from 4 per cent in May. Mr. Powell's message is that he and his colleagues have not yet seen enough to be persuaded that inflation can return to the Fed's 2-per-cent objective without further rate increases. After pausing rate hikes six weeks ago to take a breather and watch the data -- and seeing sharply slowing inflation and a cooling of the labour market in those intervening weeks -- the monetary policy makers decided they should raise rates again anyway, before sitting back for the rest of the summer to see how things play out.