Fed policymakers make case for rate hikes after end of bond-buying taper
- San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly, who as little as a month ago was calling for the central bank to show patience in its policy stance to allow more workers to reenter the labor market, said she would support two or three rate hikes next year, and did not rule out raising borrowing costs in March when asked about a start date.
Though Daly told the WSJ that the economy will be able to support more jobs once the pandemic fades, she added that "we are nearing that kind of maximum employment we can have today."
- Fed Governor Christopher Waller, who has for months voiced worries about rising prices, told an economics group in New York on Friday that he was in favor of even more aggressive policy tightening. He said he thought a rate hike in March would be "very likely" given inflation's persistence and what he expects will be a return by then to pre-pandemic levels of employment, after accounting for retirements.
- Speaking earlier on Friday, New York Fed President John Williams did not signal he would necessarily support such a fast withdrawal of policy stimulus, but he did say he felt the Fed's decision to wrap up its asset purchases quickly would put the central bank in position to respond to incoming economic data.
"It's really about getting our monetary policy stance in a good position and also obviously creating the optionality at some point next year, likely, to actually start raising the federal funds target range," he told CNBC.
Reference: Reuters
Thai
Eng