By Ann Saphir

(Reuters) – Chicago Federal Reserve Bank President Austan Goolsbee on Friday left the door open to supporting an interest-rate cut in September should fresh data prove reassuring. However, he noted that recent reports of rising services inflation give him pause amid the “stagflationary” impulse from tariffs.

> “I feel like we still need another one at least to figure out if we’re still on the golden path,” Goolsbee told CNBC.

> “If we can assure ourselves or get a hint that for this meeting, or the meetings this fall, that we aren’t on an inflationary spiral that looks to be persistent, I still think it makes sense given the strength of the economy to move rates more back to where we think they’re going to settle.”

The U.S. central bank has kept its policy rate unchanged all year as it monitors the impact of the Trump administration’s higher tariffs, which Fed policymakers expected would drive up inflation and unemployment and slow the economy.

So far the data has not validated their worst fears. With the economy slowing, both economists and financial markets expect the Fed to begin cutting rates again next month.

Still, there have been some concerning signs on inflation, along with mixed signals about whether still-strong consumer spending will continue.

Data on Friday was illustrative:

• U.S. retail sales increased by 0.5% last month after an upwardly revised 0.9% in June, reported the Commerce Department. This eased concerns that a drop in monthly job gains to just 35,000 on average over the last three months indicated a potential plunge in economic activity.
• Factory output was unchanged compared to June, a separate report showed, slightly better than forecast, but heavy truck output, seen as a forward indicator for demand for delivery equipment, fell to its lowest since last October.

However, a different report on Friday indicated that import prices rose by 0.4% in July due to a strong increase in consumer goods costs. This may serve as a warning sign for inflation, following earlier reports this week that showed rising services prices helped elevate producer prices and kept consumer prices higher than expected.

> “That makes me a little uneasy because that’s very unlikely to be caused by tariffs, so I’m hoping that was a blip,” Goolsbee said regarding the producer price index and consumer price index reports.

> “Let’s not overreact to one month of import price data for sure. Let’s not overreact to one month of CPI or PPI inflation. But it’s at least an area of concern,” he noted.