(Washington) A senior Federal Reserve Board (Fed) official said Thursday that he supports two more interest rate hikes, one in July and the other before the end of the year, in a bid to curb US inflation slowing remains high.
In June, the Fed decided to suspend interest rate hikes for the first time since March 2022 and after ten hikes in order to assess the impact of these hikes on the American economy.
According to the Fed’s “minutes” (minutes of meetings), most monetary policy committee (FOMC) officials believe that two more rate hikes will be needed this year to keep inflation down.
Gov. Christopher Waller, a member of the FOMC, said Thursday he was one of them.
“I think it’s two more hikes of 25 basis points each […] “Action is needed this year,” he said in New York, according to briefing notes accompanying his speech.
Waller said he supported the June hiatus, saying “waiting six weeks is prudent risk management.”
He said he was reassured by the June data and said he saw “no reason why the first of these two increases shouldn’t be decided at our meeting later in July”.
The next Fed meeting is July 25-26.
His statement comes a day after the Fed released a report that suggested the economy had been recovering since May.
A further hike would take interest rates to their highest level in two decades.
Twitter enthusiast. Organizer. Explorer. Reader. Zombie aficionado. Tv specialist. Thinker. Incurable internet maven.
;Composite=(type=URL,url=https://images.radio-canada.ca/v1/assets/elements/16x9/outdated-content-2015.png),gravity=SouthEast,placement=Over,location=(0,0),scale=1)
;Composite=(type=URL,url=https://images.radio-canada.ca/v1/assets/elements/16x9/outdated-content-2016.png),gravity=SouthEast,placement=Over,location=(0,0),scale=1)
;Composite=(type=URL,url=https://images.radio-canada.ca/v1/assets/elements/16x9/outdated-content-2020.png),gravity=SouthEast,placement=Over,location=(0,0),scale=1)
