Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago President Charles Evans said he wants the Fed to hold off on liftoff until it is clear that the economy will grow after rate hikes.
"I am very uncomfortable with calls to raise our policy rate sooner than later," Evans said according to prepared text of a speech he was to deliver in Washington, D.C., according to prepared text released by the Fed. "I favor delaying liftoff until I am more certain that we have sufficient momentum in place toward our policy goals. And I think we should plan for our path of policy rate increases to be shallow in order to be sure that the economy's momentum is sustainable in the presence of less accommodative financial conditions."
He added, he prefers to "err on the side of patience" when removing accommodation. "We need to solidify our confidence that our ultimate exit from the zero lower bound will occur smoothly - and in a way that sustains our escape from it. A corollary to this is we should not shy away from policy prescriptions that generate forecasts of inflation that moderately overshoot our 2 percent target for a limited time."
