Powell added that tariffs are fueling inflation and the downside risks to employment appear to have arisen in recent months.

Hurricane Melissa tore a path of destruction across Jamaica on Tuesday, prompting the prime minister to declare the country a disaster area, after the storm made landfall as a Category 5 hurricane, one of the most powerful landfalls on record in the Atlantic basin.

According to the latest advisory from the National Hurricane Center, Hurricane Melissa, now a Category 2 storm, is moving across eastern Cuba, bringing damaging winds, flash flooding and storm surge to the island after pummeling Jamaica. Melissa was located about 45 miles northwest of Guantanamo, Cuba.

In southwestern Jamaica, the parish of St. Elizabeth was left "underwater," an official said, with more than 500,000 residents without power.