Price Growth Due to Food And Energy, Lockhart Says

WASHINGTON — Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta president Dennis Lockhart Monday reaffirmed his view that the Federal Reserve’s inflation objective of 2% per year is attainable and said he expected the recent inflation acceleration to be short-lived.

“For a variety of reasons, many commodity-based prices have risen sharply,” Lockhart said in prepared remarks to the Rotary Club of Atlanta.

“I expect these strongly accelerating upward movements of commodity prices to be short-lived, and, in fact, many of these prices have either moderated somewhat or leveled off in the past month,” he said.

Still, even core inflation readings have increased, Lockhart said, noting they “rose at a higher-than-desirable pace in February.”

So “for the time being, I think the risk of deflation has retreated,” he said.

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