Powell Says Fed Faces ‘Difficult Trade-Off’ if Inflation Doesn’t Moderate

WASHINGTON—Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell told lawmakers Thursday that the central bank still expects a recent spell of high inflation to reverse but said it was difficult to pinpoint when that might happen.

A surge in prices this year “is a function of supply-side bottlenecks over which we have no control,” Mr. Powell said at a House Financial Services Committee hearing, where he appeared alongside Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.