BlackRock Inc chief executive officer Larry Fink said he expects the US Federal Reserve (Fed) to cut rates twice at the most this year, and that it will be difficult for the central bank to curb inflation.

Fink would “call it a day and a win” if the inflation rate gets to between 2.8% and 3%, which is above the Fed’s 2% target, the CEO told CNBC on Friday after the asset manager reported its first-quarter results.

“I think 2% is a hard number” to achieve, said Fink, 71. “We have restructured how we frame our economic policy.”

The CEO said the Fed should “test it out” after one or two rate cuts, suggesting the central bank should see how the economy responds.

BlackRock’s long-term investment funds took in US$76 billion of net inflows in the first quarter, the firm said on Friday in a statement. That helped push the world’s largest money manager to a record US$10.5 trillion of client assets.

Fink has warned for about two years that inflation will prove sticky, taking a more conservative position at times than the market about how quickly the Fed will cut rates.

Inflation is persisting for longer than many expected, casting doubts on whether the central bank will cut interest rates this year. The core consumer price index, which excludes food and energy, rose 3.8% in March from a year ago - a hotter number than economists projected. 

The Fed began a series of hikes in March 2022 as part of an effort to tackle inflation, which had been rising in the wake of the pandemic. Last month, the Fed kept the benchmark rate at 5.25%-5.5% - a two-decade high. 

The central bank has left rates unchanged since July.

  - Bloomberg