WASHINGTON, May 31 (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Tuesday that she was wrong in the past about the path inflation would take, but said taming price hikes is President Joe Biden's top priority and he supports the Federal Reserve's actions to achieve that.
Asked in a CNN interview whether she was wrong to downplay the threat that inflation posed in public statements over the past year, Yellen said: "I think I was wrong then about the path that inflation would take."
"As I mentioned, there have been unanticipated and large shocks to the economy that have boosted energy and food prices and supply bottlenecks that have affected our economy badly that I didn't at the time fully understand," Yellen added.
(Reporting by David Lawder and Costas Pitas; Editing by Leslie Adler)