Fed Chair Jerome Powell will appear on CBS News' 60 Minutes this Sunday evening, US time, to discuss inflation risks, expected rate cuts and the banking system, among other topics.

Here are the highlights from Jerome Powell's speech at the program he attended:

• Fed Chair Powell said FOMC rate forecasts have not changed since December.
• It seems unlikely that the Fed will cut interest rates in March.
• Geopolitical risks are the biggest threat to the global economy.
• Good progress has been made, but the work is not over yet.
• The labor market continues to be very healthy.
• We are not yet ready to say that we have achieved a soft landing.
• Moving too quickly risks inflation rising above the 2% target.
• Basically, we want to see more good data. The problem isn't that the data isn't good enough. There's really six months of data. We just want to see more good data along these lines. It doesn't have to be better than or as good as what we see. It just needs to be good. So we're waiting to see that. That's why almost everyone on the Federal Open Market Committee believes it's appropriate for us to cut interest rates this year.

Question: Are you determined to reach 2% inflation before lowering interest rates?

Powell: "No, no. That's not what we're saying, no. We are committed to returning inflation to 2% over time. I said that we would not wait until we reached 2% to lower interest rates. In fact, you know, we're actively thinking about lowering interest rates right now, and inflation on a 12-month basis, you know, it's not at 2%. It hovers between 2-3. But it's moving downwards in a way that gives us some relief."

Question: Why is your target inflation rate 2%?

"Indeed, over the last few decades, central banks around the world, advanced economy central banks, have adopted a 2% target. Why not zero, I think that's the main question. That's because the 2% target applies if interest rates always include a forecast of future inflation.

If this forecast is 2%, that means you can cut interest rates by another 2%. If interest rates are slightly higher, the central bank will have more ammunition and more power to fight the downturn. In any case, this has become a global norm. It's a pretty stable balance, and it seems to serve the public well."

CBS announced Powell's participation in the program on its social media platform X on Thursday, the day of the interview. Powell last joined the program in April 2021.

The Fed, which left interest rates unchanged at its policy meeting earlier this week, is in the middle of a policy pivot. It is moving away from the aggressive rate hikes of the past two years and entering a period where it is assessing when it can cut rates.

At a press conference after the Fed's meeting on Wednesday, Powell said it was unlikely to cut rates at the next meeting in March, as some market participants had predicted.

The Fed Chair expressed optimism about the recent cooling inflation data, but said he was concerned that prices could not fully return to the central bank's 2% target.

Powell, who holds eight press conferences a year after every Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, often tries to reach out to Americans beyond financial markets to explain the central bank's outlook and goals for monetary policy. In 2021, Powell appeared on the 60 Minutes program and touched on the economic recovery from the recession caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.