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STORY: "It is the Fed’s job to bring inflation down to our 2% goal, and we will do so,"

Jerome Powell on Friday delivered an assessment that many may not have wanted to hear: The Federal Reserve may not be finished hiking interest rates.

Speaking at the annual Jackson Hole Economy Policy Symposium in picturesque Wyoming, the Fed chairman said that as long as interest rates remained above the central bank's target 2 percent, the fight wasn't over.

However, he promised to proceed "carefully."

"Although inflation has moved down from its peak -- a welcome development -- it remains too high. We are prepared to raise rates further if appropriate, and intend to hold policy at a restrictive level until we are confident that inflation is moving sustainably down toward our objective."

The Fed has jacked up its policy rate from near zero in March 2022 to the current range of more than five percent.

But despite predictions such aggressive moves could trigger a recession, unemployment remains at a historically low 3.5% and overall economic growth has defied expectations that it would falter.

Unlike last year's speech at the closely watched annual conference, Powell did not warn households of coming "pain" from further policy tightening. But neither did he signal that rate cuts were on the horizon.

"Two percent is and will remain our inflation target…we are committed to achieving and sustaining a stance of monetary policy that is sufficiently restrictive to bring inflation down to that level over time."

The Fed is widely expected to hold rates steady at a policy meeting next month.