The Federal Reserve is not yet at the point where it can start gradually lowering interest rates, Fed governor Michelle Bowman said on Friday. “In my view, we are not yet at that point,” Bowman said in a speech to a group of bankers in Hawaii. On Wednesday, Bowman and 11 other top Fed officials voted unanimously to keep the Fed’s benchmark rate unchanged in a range of 5.25% to 5.5%. The Fed has kept rates steady since July.
Bowman said her “baseline outlook” is that inflation will decline further even as the Fed holds rates unchanged, and that it would eventually become appropriate to move rates lower. At the same time, Bowman said she has not ruled out another rate hike. “I remain willing to raise the federal-funds rate at a future meeting should the incoming data indicate progress on inflation has stalled or reversed,” Bowman said, adding that she will be watching the incoming data carefully, including the revisions to 2023 inflation data set to be released on Feb. 9. Overall, Bowman said she would be “cautious” about future changes in interest-rate policy. “Reducing our policy rate too soon could result in requiri …
Article Attribution | Read More at Article Source
Bowman said her “baseline outlook” is that inflation will decline further even as the Fed holds rates unchanged, and that it would eventually become appropriate to move rates lower. At the same time, Bowman said she has not ruled out another rate hike. “I remain willing to raise the federal-funds rate at a future meeting should the incoming data indicate progress on inflation has stalled or reversed,” Bowman said, adding that she will be watching the incoming data carefully, including the revisions to 2023 inflation data set to be released on Feb. 9. Overall, Bowman said she would be “cautious” about future changes in interest-rate policy. “Reducing our policy rate too soon could result in requiri …nnDiscussion:nn” ai_name=”RocketNews AI: ” start_sentence=”Can I tell you more about this article?” text_input_placeholder=”Type ‘Yes'”]