Fed’s Barkin sees ‘potentially a higher end point’ for rates

(Reuters) -Richmond Federal Reserve President Thomas Barkin on Friday said he is ready to act more “deliberatively” on consideration of the pace of future U.S. interest rate hikes, but said rates could continue rising for longer and to a higher end point than previously expected.

Coming two days after the U.S. central bank delivered its fourth straight 75-basis-point rate increase, Barkin’s remarks to CNBC signaled that the pace of tightening may slow from here, though he endorsed Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s view that rates could ultimately end up higher than officials had previously estimated.

“When you get your foot on the brake, you think about steering in a very different way. You pump the brakes, sometimes you act a little bit more deliberatively, and I’m ready to do that. And I think the implication of that is probably a slower rate of pace of rate increases, a longer pace of rate increases and potentially a higher end point,” Barkin said in the interview.

He spoke shortly after the U.S. Labor Department reported stronger-than-expected job growth for October, something he said was “consistent with what I hear from contacts, which is that demand remains solid.”

“The labor market remains tight, and you can point to the unemployment rate. You can point to wages,” Barkin said. “We’re not getting much help on the supply side, participation is down. And I think firms are just holding on to workers.”

“I do think the labor market remains tight and that means there’s still more work to do.”

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