Investing.com – The president of the Federal Reserve (Fed) of Kansas City Esther George called again on Thursday for the U.S. central bank to remove accommodation by increasing interest rates.
George specified that the hikes in the price of money should be gradual but noted that despite a slowdown in the U.S. economy, strong growth in the second semester could hit 3%.
She also noted in the interview with CNBC at Jackson Hole that recent wage inflation suggested consumers were in a position to spend.
George further explained that the only reason the Fed has not begun policy tightening was due to some recent economic data that made some officials cautious.
For context, George was the only member of the Fed to dissent in the last policy meeting, calling for a 25 basis point hike to 0.5%-0.75%.
The comments came after a string of hawkish comments over the last week from various other Fed officials and ahead of Fed chair Janet Yellen’s highly anticipated speech at the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium on Friday.
The odds for a rate hike at the September meeting had been increasing on the back of recent hawkish comments from Fed officials and are currently putting the probability at 21%, compared to last week’s 9%, according to Investing.com’s Fed Rate Monitor Tool.
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