(Bloomberg) -- Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell reiterated that raising interest rates by half percentage-point increments at the next two meetings is likely to be appropriate, though the central bank is prepared to change course depending on incoming data.

Asked in a interview with the Marketplace public radio program if he had taken a larger 75 basis-point increase off the table, Powell said -- restating his comments from a May 4 press conference -- that while the Fed wasn’t “actively considering” such a move, “if the economy performs about as expected, that it would be appropriate for there to be additional 50-basis point increases at the next two meetings.”

“But I would just say, we have a series of expectations about the economy,” Powell was quoted as saying in a transcript of the interview, published Thursday. “If things come in better than we expect, then we’re prepared to do less. If they come in worse than when we expect, then we’re prepared to do more.”

The Fed, fighting the highest inflation in four decades, raised interest rates by a half percentage point last week and Powell signaled at a press conference it was on track to do the same at its meetings in June and July.

Powell’s latest comments come on the day that the Senate confirmed him in a bipartisan 80-19 vote to another four-year term at the helm of the US central bank. While his political support is broad, the Fed has been criticized by some investors and former officials for being slow to confront rising prices stoked by pent-up demand and pandemic-induced supply-chain tangles. Those pressures have been made worse by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Covid lockdowns in China.

Data released Wednesday showed that consumer prices excluding food and energy increased by more than forecast in April, a sign elevated inflation will persist for longer.

Officials want to raise rates this year to a level that neither speeds up nor slows down the economy, called the neutral rate, and then assess if they need to do more to cool demand.

Policy makers have voiced confidence they can pull this of and still achieve a soft landing that avoids crashing the economy. But critics say a recession is likely.

©2022 Bloomberg L.P.