Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank president Dennis Lockhart Friday said he is prepared to support a change in monetary policy should the Fed’s inflation objective become “at risk.”
Lockhart also said he is confident the rise in short-term measures of inflation “will not persist” and that the central bank’s inflation objective of 2% per year is attainable.
“I am prepared to support a change of policy if evidence accumulates that the low and stable inflation objective is at risk,” he told the Bonita-Estero Market Pulse Conference in Fort Myers, Fla.
“For now, however, I remain satisfied that the current stance of monetary policy is appropriately calibrated to the current and projected state of the economy and supportive of both the employment and price stability objectives,” he said.
On the growth side, Lockhart said his outlook for the rest of 2011 and for 2012 is a “net positive,” despite headwinds.
Those include home prices that remain under pressure, higher commodity prices that also cut into households budgets, the ongoing caution of lenders, and global uncertainties due to developments in Japan, the Middle East and North Africa.
