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Fed's Williams: US doing fine, world isn't
John Williams, President & CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, told CNBC on Monday that he believe the U.S. economy is doing "quite well," pointing to stable inflation and strong employment growth.
"The real issue is the global financial and economic developments, there's uncertainty about what's happening around the world and how that feeds back to the dollar and the U.S. economy," he told 'Asia Squawk Box.'
Williams reiterated that the central bank's policy decisions would remain data dependent, singling out inflation as one of the Fed'stop concerns.
"We've been missing our 2 percent inflation goal for three and a half years or so, global disinflationary factors are still holding inflation down...The data to me isn't so much about the labor market continuing to improve, I'm very positive on that, it's more about inflation moving back to 2 percent in the context of very strong headwinds," he explained, citing the strong dollar and low commodity prices.
The remarks such as those from St. Louis President James Bullard raised prospects of more rate hikes than the market had anticipated.
"Statements by the Fed's Yellen and Dudley will also be in focus. They are core Fed board members and dollar will be supported if they express hawkish views," said Shusuke Yamada, chief Japan FX strategist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in Tokyo.
Oil prices rose in early Asian trading on Monday after a three-day break, but volumes were thin as a number of markets remain on holiday for Easter. U.S. crude's front-month contract was up 29 cents at $39.75 a barrel at 0307 GMT.
On Thursday, it settled down 33 cents at $39.46 a barrel, recovering from a session low of $38.33. For the week, it rose 2 cents, finishing up for a sixth straight week.
Reference: Reuters, CNBC
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