The Federal Reserve wants to see more evidence that inflation is easing before resuming interest rate cuts. The latest data presented a mixed picture.

The central bank’s preferred inflation measure, released Friday, climbed 2.6% in December from a year earlier, faster than its 2.4% rate in November and quicker than the central bank’s 2% target. Compared with the previous month, prices are up 0.3%.

After stripping out volatile food and fuel costs, “core” inflation was 2.8%, in line with its previous reading, data from the Commerce Department showed Friday.

Price pressures have been a focal point for the Fed as it debates how quickly to resume rate cuts. It decided this week to take a breather. Since September, rates have come down by a percentage point and now hover between 4.25% to 4.5%.

Beneath the headline figures, the details suggested that underlying inflation has stabilized. On a monthly basis, core inflation rose 0.2%, roughly in line with November’s increase.

New employment cost index data, also released Friday, showed that compensation rose 0.9% in the fourth quarter, roughly in line with the pace earlier in the year. Oliver Allen, senior U.S. economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said the latest numbers released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics provided “some reassurance.”

Together with the gradual cooling across the labor market as fewer people quit their jobs, Allen said that “significantly softer underlying services inflation is still in the pipeline.”

Fed Chair Jerome Powell said that for the Fed to consider rate cuts again, it would need to see further progress on getting inflation down or labor market weakness.

The latest data supports the Fed’s view that it does not need to be in a hurry to lower rates at this point. Speaking Friday, Michelle Bowman, a Fed governor, reiterated her support for that approach, saying the central bank should “take time to carefully assess the progress in achieving our inflation and employment goals,” given her continued concerns about price pressures.

The economy has yet to falter, ending last year on a strong note, with U.S. gross domestic product growing at a 2.3% annual rate in the fourth quarter once adjusted for inflation.

Uncertainty about President Donald Trump’s economic policies has also muddied the outlook. Powell told reporters this week that officials were in a “mode of waiting to see what policies are enacted.”

Most economists expect sweeping tariffs of the kind that Trump has proposed — including 25% levies on Mexico and Canada beginning this week — to raise consumer prices to some degree. Over time, they also think they will be detrimental to growth.