“I’ll be surprised if I’m advocating a tightening in policy” this year, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago President Charles Evans said. “I certainly think strong policy accommodation continues to be appropriate because the unemployment rate is 8.8% and inflation continues to be low, certainly on an underlying basis,” the official said.
He added “as long as year-over-year underlying inflation, core inflation, is 1.5% or lower, I am extremely doubtful we need an adjustment in monetary policy.” He noted 2% is where he believes inflation should be, and explained “as we get up toward 2%, we would want to make some adjustments to policy.”
As reported by Dow Jones