Williams speaking with media after his earlier speech (Fed's Williams: Gradual rate hikes appropriate over next two years)

  • Sees one more rate hike later this year, three next year, a little bit more in 2019
  • Says long-run inflation expectations don't necessarily signal Fed is making a mistake
  • Says he is strongly against replacing inflation target with a range
  • Says setting a range for Fed's inflation goal could allow expectations to drift to lower bound of range
  • Need a strong economy to offset low inflation
  • Fed needs QE, forward guidance as future policy options
  • Says ruling out qe as a future policy option could change inflation expectations significantly

John Williams is head of the Federal Reserve branch in San Francisco