Federal Reserve Gov. Christopher Waller said today he supports a “significant increase” in the federal funds rate at the next Federal Open Market Committee meeting on Sept. 20-21. Speaking at an economics conference in Vienna, Waller said it is too soon to say whether inflation will start subsiding despite a recent softening in how fast prices are rising. “(F)ears of a recession starting in the first half of this year have faded away and the robust U.S. labor market is giving us the flexibility to be aggressive in our fight against inflation,” he said.
Waller noted that while he supports an increase at the next FOMC meeting, “looking further out, I can’t tell you about the appropriate path of policy. The peak range and how fast we will move there will depend on data we will receive about the economy.” Still, Waller stressed he doesn’t expect rate increases to stop anytime soon. “I expect that getting inflation to fall meaningfully and persistently toward our 2% target will require increases in the target range for the federal funds rate until at least early next year.”
