San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly said it’s time to consider lowering the Federal Reserve policy rate in the upcoming meeting in September as she gained “more confidence” that US inflation is under control and saw little evidence that the economy is heading for a deep downturn from recent data, she said in a Financial Times interview conducted on Thursday.
Inflation has been making gradual progress towards the Fed’s 2% inflation after the first quarter, and while the target has yet been met, ‘it’s clearly giving me more confidence that we are on our way to price stability,” Daly said.
Kashkari opens to September rate as balance of risk shifted
Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari also said “the balance of risks has shifted” so it’s appropriate to debate a potential rate cut in the upcoming FOMC meeting, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.
Kashkari added that he has observed “some concerning signs” in the labor market while “inflation is making progress,” hence it’s good to change the discussions toward lowering policy rate.
“I’ll probably be in the camp of, ‘Hey, let’s take a more measured approach because we don’t know where our destination is going to be,” Kashkari said, explaining why he doesn’t support drastic actions though in the , “if we saw some quicker deterioration in the labor market, then that would tell me, ‘Well, we need to do more, quickly, to support the labor market, even if we have uncertainty about where our ultimate destination is going to be.”
“I’m still unclear how tight policy is, but the balance of risks in my view have shifted more towards the labor market and away from the inflation side of our dual mandate,” said Kashkari.
Daly holds a vote in this year’s FOMC meetings, while Kashkari is a non-voting member.
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