Economics

Fed Officials Push for More Hikes; Bullard Favors Front-Loading

  • Officials gathering in Jackson Hole for annual policy retreat
  • George says rates still not high enough to brake the economy
WATCH: The countdown to Jay Powell’s speech in Jackson Hole.Source: Bloomberg
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US central bankers stressed the need to keep raising interest rates and St. Louis Fed chief James Bullard said officials should act quickly and lift their policy benchmark to a 3.75% to 4% range by year end.

“I like the front-loading. I like the idea that you get the rate increases in earlier rather than later,” he told CNBC Thursday in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. “You show you are serious about inflation fighting and you want to get up to the level that will put downward pressure on inflation. We are at 2.33% right now. That is not high enough,” he said, referring to the current effective level of the benchmark federal funds rate.