(Reuters) – The U.S. has a higher inflation than the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. This means policymakers should be vigilant to prevent long-term inflation expectations from becoming unanchored. Raphael Bostic of Atlanta Fed Bank stated Tuesday that this was because pandemic-induced inflation pressures are not causing inflation expectations to fall.

“I’ve seen enough to conclude that underlying inflation is indeed above the [Federal Open Market] Committee’s 2 percent objective,” Bostic said in remarks prepared for a virtual event organized by the Peterson Institute of International Economics.

Bostic stated that he believed that most of the pricing trends that were caused by the pandemic would “unwind themselves by themselves”, but cautioned that supply chain disruptions could last for longer than originally anticipated.

He stated that “up to now indicators don’t suggest long-run inflation anticipations are dangerously unstable.” But the intermittent pressures may continue long enough to unanchor expectation.