Fed’s Bowman: need to continue rate hikes until we see “a lot more” inflation progress

(Reuters) – The Federal Reserve will need to keep raising interest rates until it makes much more progress on bringing high inflation back down towards its 2% goal particularly in light of recent disappointing data, Fed Governor Michelle Bowman said on Friday.

“I think there’s a long way to go before we reach our 2% inflation objective and I think we’ll have to continue to raise the federal funds rate until we see a lot more progress on that,” Bowman said during an appearance before a bankers association in Nashville, Tennessee.

“I don’t think we’re seeing what we need to be seeing, especially with inflation, those numbers have been jumping around a little bit,” she added. “We were seeing some progress in lowering inflation at the end of last year, but some of the data that we’re seeing early this year is not tracking with consistently lowering inflation in a way that I would like to see.”

(Reporting by Lindsay Dunsmuir; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

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