Atlanta Fed President Dennis Lockhart:

  • Seeking more hard evidence of inflation
  • Inflation will be key to pace of further Fed rate hikes, need 'hard evidence' that 2% target will be reached
  • US economy could accelerate if global conditions and oil markets improve
  • Q4 data could look weak and reflect slow consumer spending, but he is mildly optimistic continue to grow between 2% and 2.5% in coming year
  • Expects economy to reach full employment this year

We've heard the same sort of thing from Lockhart often.