Fed's Goolsbee nervous about potential for COVID-sized supply shock

Feb 20 (Reuters) - Chicago Federal Reserve President Austan Goolsbee on Thursday said he is a bit nervous about the potential for large-scale tariffs to create a significant supply shock that could aggravate inflation as occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The tariffs imposed during Donald Trump's first term as president did not have a material impact on inflation, Goolsbee said at an event in Chicago, in part because they were narrower and included enough exemptions that supply networks were not affected.

But in thinking about the more broad-based and higher tariffs currently in development by Trump, "it depends on how many countries they are going to apply to and how big are they going to be. And the more it looks like a COVID-sized shock, the more nervous you should be about that."