St. Louis Fed President James Bullard said on Wednesday the central bank should not “hold off” on raising its benchmark interest rate until it exceeds 5%.
“I like a little bit more up front,” Bullard said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. The interview was live-streamed. He said the Fed should move as quickly as possible to get the policy rate above 5% and then it can react to the data.
Bullard said in the interview that he personally favors the Fed raising its benchmark interest rate to a range of 5.25%-5.5% this year, which is slightly higher than average expectations. He said the rate hike was partly an attempt to ensure that inflation would come down.
The St. Louis Fed president, who is not a voting member of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) this year, said he does not expect inflation to cool as quickly as the market is predicting.
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