New York Federal Reserve Bank President Williams said the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) predicted in March that it would raise interest rates one more time by the end of the year, followed by a pause. It’s a reasonable starting point,” he said.
“We have to do what we need to do to make sure inflation is kept down,” Williams said in an interview with Yahoo Finance on Wednesday. Inflation is declining but still well above the Fed’s 2% target, and core price indicators have moved only marginally recently, he said.
“The data we are getting is consistently strong,” he said, noting that inflation remains very high. He said he was uncertain regarding the impact of the recent banking sector turmoil on the economy.
At the FOMC meeting in March, the central bank forecast the policy rate to be 5.1% by the end of 2023 (median). This suggests one more rate hike of 0.25 percentage points.
Original title:Fed’s Williams Says One More Hike Is ‘Reasonable Starting Place’(excerpt)