JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon on Tuesday warned against relying on the economic forecasts of central banks like the Federal Reserve, recalling how their projections were “100% dead wrong” in the not-so-distant past.
“Prepare for possibilities and probabilities, not calling one course of action, since I’ve never seen anyone call it,” Dimon said during a panel discussion at the Future Investment Initiative (FII) conference in Saudi Arabia, per CNBC.
“I want to point out the central banks 18 months ago were 100% dead wrong,” he continued, according to the outlet. “I would be quite cautious about what might happen next year.”
The head of the largest bank in the U.S. went on to criticize “this omnipotent feeling that central banks and governments can manage through all this stuff,” adding, “I’m cautious.”
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For much of 2021 and into 2022, the Fed and the Biden administration insisted the surge in prices would be “transitory,” but that proved to not be the case.
The Fed waited until March 2022 to begin raising interest rates to address the burst in inflation, and many economists say the central bank waited too long to do so. The Fed has since raised rates another 10 times in an aggressive tightening campaign as inflation remains well above the bank’s 2% target rate.
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As for whether the Fed might raise rates again this year, Dimon said, “I don’t think it makes a piece of difference whether the rates go up 25 basis points or more, like zero, none, nada.”
Dimon’s remarks in Saudi Arabia come after he issued a stark warning earlier this month in a statement accompanying JPMorgan’s third-quarter earnings release, when he said the war in Ukraine, along with the war between Israel and Hamas, may have “far-reaching impacts on energy and food markets, global trade and geopolitical relationships.”
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He wrote, “This may be the most dangerous time the world has seen in decades.”
FOX Business’ Megan Henney contributed to this report.