Noting that he still would be comfortable with a rate hike, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond President Jeffrey Lacker in a televised interview would not predict how his colleagues will vote at the October Federal Open Market Committee meeting.
“I don’t know whether we’re going to raise rates in October or not,” Lacker said in an interview on Fox Business News. Lacker dissented at the previous meeting when rates were not raised, noting, "I thought conditions warranted higher rates then."
Speaking of today’s retail sales report, he said, “I don’t think it changes the outlook fundamentally.”
As for the jobs market, Lacker said, it’s “unlikely there’s any meaningful slack left in the labor market” and 100,000 jobs added a month would be sufficient.
Despite that, Lacker said, “I’ll make a final decision on the way in [to the meeting], but my views haven’t changed much since September."
