Barr: Fed needs to be in wait-and-see stance for now

May 9 (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve needs to be patient in assessing how the Trump administration's tariffs affect the economy - especially inflation and unemployment - before making any adjustments to interest rates, Federal Reserve Governor Michael Barr said on Friday.

"Growth has been strong over the last year and stays strong today. The unemployment rate has been low and stable for quite a long period of time, and we don't know yet how tariffs are going to turn out," Barr said in response to a question at an event hosted by the Central Bank of Iceland. "So we need to be in a wait-and-see approach."

Barr's remarks echoed those of Fed Chair Jerome Powell earlier this week after the central bank left its policy rate unchanged in a range of 4.25% to 4.50%. In their policy statement, Fed officials had said uncertainty over the economic outlook had increased further.