It would be best to wait for good news on the economy before raising interest rates again, later reports cited him as having said.
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The Federal Reserve could hike USA interest rates this year, St. Louis Fed President James Bullard said on Friday, noting the central bank would have to watch out for risky financial bubbles emerging in technology stocks and elsewhere in the market.
“But under conditions when we’re seeing employment move [higher with] low and stable inflation, I think it’s fair to say we could remove some of that accommodation”, she said. It doesn’t mean I think that needs to happen rapidly.
Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan also told CNBC progress is being made on employment, and the economy would grow stronger for the remainder of this year.
The Fed raised interest rates for the first time in almost a decade in December, but has kept them on hold since then on concern that headwinds from overseas and financial market volatility at home could hurt growth.
The Fed’s benchmark interest rate, the federal-funds rate, has been near zero for more than seven years and is negative when adjusted for inflation.
Oil has moved inversely with the dollar since Chairwoman Janet Yellen’s remarks at the annual central bankers’ summit at Jackson Hole, Wyo.
Second-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) data was below economists’ expectations, but George believes that in the second half of 2016, US real GDP could grow by three percent. Wall Street will fixate on a wave of United States economic data next week, crested by payrolls data today that could sway expectations about the timing of future interest rate hikes and spark volatility in record-high stock prices.
Recent jobs reports have also been encouraging.
George said there are indications that inflation is rising as the labour market tightens.
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The title of this year’s conference, “Designing Resilient Monetary Policy Frameworks for the Future”, reflects the global economic and monetary policy uncertainty they face. In July, the USA economy added 255,000 jobs, significantly more than economists’ expectation of 180,000 job gains.
