WSJ reports
The Fed's Rosengren in an article in the WSJ says:
- Fed has no urgency to raise interest rates despite positive economic outlook
- I'm expecting a very strong economy over the course of this year,
- I'm expecting the unemployment rate to get quite low by the end of the year.
- We still have a lot of labor market slack, the participation rate is still quite low relative to prior to the pandemic, and the unemployment rate is still at 6%. So we need to get rid of the slack, have a sustained inflation rate, before we need to worry about raising rates.
- So for most investors and most decision making, I think what's relevant is we're not going to be raising rates this year, unless something dramatically changes relative to what our forecasts are.
- if we get a covariant that is not effective with the vaccine, our forecasts are going to change very dramatically and when we end up lifting rates will be very different.
- If inflation is in the 2 to 2.5 percent range, which I think is highly likely over the next two years, I would not be particularly concerned.
- I do think that there are going to be periods over the course of this year that are a bit above 2%, both because of some of the supply chain issues and because of the base change that reflected the very low prices that occurred as the pandemic first started.
- We care about a sustained inflation rate, not a one or two months reported inflation rate.
Comments are in line with most other Fed Speak.
