A total of 3-4 rate hikes this year remains viable, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco President John Williams said in a televised interview Friday.
Pointing to the latest Summary of Economic projections, issued in March, Williams said the “central tendency” expecting three to four hikes this year remains valid, with one already in the books.
Noting the Fed’s decisions are data-dependent, Williams said on CNBC, “with the economy continuing to grow above trend, with job growth continuing to be good, with inflation numbers really getting close to our 2% goal, the right thing to think is we’re going to continue the gradual process of moving interest rates up.”
The most recent Fed statement used the work symmetric twice regarding inflation. Williams said, “2% is the midpoint” and he’d be “comfortable” overshooting that target for “a while” because it’s symmetric.
