Federal Reserve Governor Michelle Bowman said she’s sticking with her call that interest rates will likely need to increase further to return inflation to the Fed’s 2% goal quickly.
US inflation remains “too high” and Bowman said she expects it’ll be appropriate for the Federal Open Market Committee “to raise rates further and hold them at a restrictive level for some time to return inflation to our 2% goal in a timely way,” according to her prepared remarks to the Connecticut Bankers Association on Saturday.
Bowman repeated her warning that “high energy prices could reverse some of the progress we have seen on inflation in recent months.”
US employment surged in September, bolstering the case for another Fed interest-rate increase. Bowman on Saturday cited Fed expectations that inflation will stay above target at least until the end of 2025, according to the median forecast released after the central bank’s September policy meeting.
“This, along with my own expectation that progress on inflation is likely to be slow given the current level of monetary policy restraint, suggests that further policy tightening will be needed to bring inflation down in a sustainable and timely manner,” she said.
Read more: Fed’s Bowman Again Urges Multiple Rate Hikes to Curb Inflation
Bowman didn’t comment directly on whether she would support a rate increase at the Fed’s next meeting on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1.
