May 10 (Reuters) - Chicago Federal Reserve Bank President Austan Goolsbee on Friday said he believes U.S. monetary policy is "relatively restrictive," meaning that borrowing costs are putting downward pressure on inflation.
Increased supply, including on the labor side, makes it difficult to interpret if strong job gains and strong economic growth indicate any worrisome overheating, he said at an event in Minneapolis.
He said he is hesitant to put too much weight on stronger-than-expected inflation in the first quarter of the year, given the substantial progress on inflation seen last year, and that the data will determine what the Fed will need to do next with policy.
(Reporting by Ann Saphir)
