Investing.com -- Federal Reserve Vice Chair Stanley Fischer said Friday he is confident that the U.S. central bank has the tools to raise interest rates during the 2015 fiscal year.
Speaking at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business' U.S. Monetary Policy Forum 2015 Annual Conference, Fischer said the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) anticipates that it will raise its benchmark Federal Funds Rate "sometime this year."
Fischer, the former chief economist at the World Bank, spoke at length on Friday about the Fed's bond buying program, also known as quantitative easing. The asset purchasing program, which ended in October after six years, lowered unemployment by 1.25% and increased inflation by 0.5%, Fischer said.
Fischer's comments came several days after Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen's semi-annual testimony before Congress earlier in the week. During the Humphrey-Hawkins testimony, Yellen said the Fed could raise interest rates if wages increased and inflation moved closer to its target rate of 2%.
Fischer admitted on Friday that the Fed's substantial balance sheet (which was estimated at $4.48 trillion in October) provides the U.S. central bank with some challenges in the near future.
Fischer was nominated as the vice chair of the Federal Reserve by President Barack Obama in January, 2014 and later confirmed last May.