Fed’s Bowman says it will likely be appropriate to raise rates again

© Reuters. U.S. Federal Reserve Governor Michelle Bowman gives her first public remarks as a Fed policymaker at an American Bankers Association conference in San Diego, California, U.S., February 11 2019. REUTERS/Ann Saphir/File Photo

(Reuters) – Federal Reserve Governor Michelle Bowman on Saturday repeated her view that inflation continues to be too high despite “considerable” progress in lowering it, and the U.S. central bank will likely need to tighten monetary policy further.

“I expect it will likely be appropriate for the (Fed) to raise rates further and hold them at a restrictive level for some time to return inflation to our 2 percent goal in a timely way,” Bowman said in prepared remarks to the Connecticut Bankers Association.

“I remain willing to support raising the federal funds rate at a future meeting if the incoming data indicates that progress on inflation has stalled or is too slow to bring inflation to 2 percent in a timely way,” she said.

The comments were largely identical to those Bowman made on Monday about the economic and policy outlook.

On Friday, the U.S. Labor Department reported that employers added nearly twice as many jobs as expected in September, and it revised higher the job gains for previous months.

Bowman, one of the Fed’s most hawkish policymakers, said the latest employment report reflected “solid” job growth.

“The frequency and scope of recent data revisions complicates the task of projecting how the economy will evolve,” Bowman said, noting that downward revisions to job growth in previous government reports had contributed to her support last month of the Fed’s decision to leave its benchmark overnight interest rate steady in the 5.25%-5.50% range.

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