U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell warned on Thursday that getting inflation under control will not be easy as there may be some economic challenges along the way, but it still remains the Fed’s top priority, CNBC writes.

Powell said promising a so-called “soft landing” for the economy is not possible as the Fed raises interest rates to combat rising prices, which have approached the highest in more than 40 years.

“So a soft landing is a return to 2% inflation while maintaining the strength of the labor market. But doing that right now is quite difficult for several reasons,” he said.

He noted that with a tight labor market pushing up wages, avoiding a recession, which often follows decisive policy tightening, would be difficult.

At the top of his list of priorities for a second term will be controlling price inflation, which stood at an annualized rate of 8.3 percent in April, just below the more than 40-year high recorded in March.

Last week, the Fed approved an interest rate hike of half a percentage point after raising it by a quarter-point in March. The federal open-market committee that sets the rate is now expected to raise it another half-point in June and continue to raise it for the rest of the year.

“Our goal, of course, is to get inflation back to 2 percent without going into recession in the economy and for the labor market to remain reasonably strong,” he said. – That’s what we’re trying to achieve. The economy doesn’t work without price stability.”

Powell has been criticized for the Fed’s delay in raising rates and ending its bond-buying program in the face of rising inflation. At his press conference after last week’s Fed meeting, he made remarks that were interpreted as taking more drastic steps, such as a 75 basis point rate hike, off the table.

In an interview with Marketplace, he said he was “not sure how much difference it would have made” if he had acted sooner, adding, “We did the best we could.”