Another key member of the Federal Reserve is indicating to circle September on your calendar for an increase in interest rates.
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That’s where central bankers were meeting this week at the Kansas City Fed’s annual Economic Symposium.
Recent strong readings on the United States labour market, and signs that inflation is finally beginning to pick up, have begun to encourage some policymakers to believe that rates should rise, if not as soon as September’s policy meeting then at least before the end of the year.
“One jobs report is not going to drive our thinking”, Kaplan said.
Last December, the Fed raised its benchmark interest rate for the first time since the financial crisis.
“We’re [also] making frustratingly slow progress, but some progress on inflation”, he continued.
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.
George also sees second half economic growth, with the consumer leading the way.
St. Louis Fed President James Bullard, known as an outspoken US central banker, set off the spat with the activists group called Fed Up when in a televised interview he noted that a Facebook (FB.O) founder Dustin Moskovitz Moskovitz funds the group and therefore he should attend the conference in person.
Many of these issues, such as ageing demographics, are best addressed through policies other than monetary, such as structural reforms and fiscal tools.
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“We’re in sort of a benign period here”, he added.
