Fed's Powell says Covid-19 will be with us 'for a while'

Nonetheless, in the televised town hall meeting with educators, he also said that the impact of the Delta strain of Covid-19 on the US economy remained to be seen.

In the broadcast, which was posted to the central bank's website, Jerome Powell said: "Covid is still with us, and that is likely to be the case for a while."

"[It is] not yet clear whether the Delta strain will have important effects on the economy, we'll have to see about that," he added.

At one point, Powell also indicated that the recovery in the services sector was "far from complete".

He also noted that the US was falling behind other countries in its vaccination programme.

One result of that, Powell said, was the outbreak of the Delta variant in some parts of the country.