The Globe and Mail reports in its Tuesday, July 16, edition that chairman Jerome Powell said on Monday that the U.S. Federal Reserve is increasingly convinced that inflation is on track to reach its 2-per-cent target. An Associated Press dispatch to The Globe reports that Mr. Powell also mentioned that the Fed would consider lowering interest rates before the pace of price increases actually reaches that point. "We've had three better readings, and if you average them, that's a pretty good pace," Mr. Powell said of inflation in a question-and-answer session at the Economic Club of Washington. Those figures, he said, "do add somewhat to confidence" that inflation is slowing sustainably. Mr. Powell refused to give any hints about when the first rate cut would happen. However, most economists predict that the first cut will take place in September. After Mr. Powell's comments, Wall Street traders increased their expectation that the Fed would lower its key rate from its 23-year high at that time. AP says the futures markets expect additional rate cuts in November and December. In his remarks Monday, Mr. Powell stressed that the Fed did not need to wait until inflation actually reached 2 per cent to cut borrowing costs.