A string of 'hot' data may force the U.S. central bank to raise rates higher than the 5.1%-5.4% range projected by the majority of Federal Reserve policymakers as recently as December, Fed Governor Christopher Waller said on Thursday
After tightening policy aggressively last year to fight 40-year-high inflation, the Fed slowed the pace of interest-rate hikes in December and again last month, when it increased the benchmark by a quarter of a percentage point to the 4.50%-4.75% range.
But in January, inflation by the Fed's preferred gauge, the Personal Consumption Expenditures price index, rose 5.4% from a year earlier, worse than the 5.3% it notched in December.That data, coupled with a government report showing employers added more than a half million jobs in January, has prompted many analysts to expect a higher stopping point for rates. Fed policymakers will publish revised projections for the rate path at their upcoming meeting on March 20-21.
Waller signaled he was open to the possibility that the apparent recent stall in progress on inflation was a "bump" in an otherwise welcome trend downward.
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