Lockhart: More Stimulus Needs to Be Balanced Against Risks

NEW YORK – Before taking further monetary policy actions to stimulate the economy, Federal Open Market Committee members need to weigh the risks to price stability, Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank Preside Dennis Lockhart said Thursday.

"The Fed's already done a lot to support the recovery," he said. "Whether additional monetary policy actions should be used at this time to try to speed things up has to be balanced against the risks to the Fed's price stability objective that could accompany an overestimating of the amount of economic slack-particularly labor market slack," he sais according to prepared text of his remarks at a University of California-Santa Barbara conference, released by the Fed.

Lockhart said policymakers must decide: How big the employment gap is; can it be closed by additional stimulus; “Is the pace of closure under current policy acceptable?" and, "If not, what more can and should be done?"

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