Fed Needs to Keep Hiking Rates to Curb Inflation, Cook Says
2022.10.20 13:27
© Bloomberg. Lisa Cook, governor of the US Federal Reserve, speaks at the Peterson Institute For International Economics in Washington, DC, US, on Thursday, Oct. 6, 2022. Cook said she supports the central bank’s policy-tightening path and that further interest-rate increases and a period of policy restriction will likely be needed to bring inflation down.
(Bloomberg) — Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook said inflation remains unacceptably high and interest rates will need to keep rising to get it under control.
“Inflation is too high, it must come down and we will keep at it until the job is done,” she said Thursday during opening remarks at a panel discussion with business and community leaders in Spartanburg, South Carolina. “This likely will require ongoing rate hikes and then keeping policy restrictive for some time.”
The Fed has aggressively raised its benchmark interest rate this year from nearly zero to just above 3% in a bid to curb the highest inflation in four decades. Officials signaled after their last policy meeting in September that they expected to raise the rate to just above 4.5% in 2023.
“Policy must be based on whether we see inflation actually falling in the data, rather than just in forecasts. Policy should remain focused on restoring price stability, which will also set the foundation for a sustainably strong labor market,” she said.
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