Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond President Thomas Barkin kept his options open on how big the central bank should go when it raises interest rates later this month, following an increase of 75 basis points in June. “I am one of the guys who like the option value of deciding the week of the meeting as opposed to two weeks before the meeting,” he told reporters Tuesday after a speech in Charlotte, North Carolina. “But I thought Jay’s guidance the last time was very sound. We’ll get a little bit more information before the meeting and importantly we’ll get CPI. I’ll reserve judgment.” The consumer price index for June will be released on Wednesday. It is expected to show an 8.8% increase from a year earlier, marking the largest jump since 1981, according to the median forecast in a Bloomberg survey.
Source: The Bond Buyer

Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Raphael Bostic said the U.S. economy can cope with higher interest rates and repeated his support for another jumbo move when the central bank meets later this month. “Right now I’m pretty comfortable,” he told reporters in a conference call Monday. “I’m confident that the economy will be able to withstand this next move. I would support a 75 basis-point” increase. Policy makers pivoted to aggressively lifting interest rates this year as they work to tame the hottest inflation in four decades, a shift they acknowledge could slow U.S. economic growth and weaken the labor market.
Source: The Bond Buyer

Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City President Esther George, who dissented last month against the central bank’s jumbo 75 basis-point increase in interest rates, cautioned that rushing to tighten policy could backfire. “Communicating the path for interest rates is likely far more consequential than the speed with which we get there,” she said Monday in a speech to the Mid-America Labor/Management Conference in Lake Ozark, Missouri. “Moving interest rates too fast raises the prospect of oversteering.” George, whose vote at the June meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee was the first dovish dissent of her career, said she understood the desire to raise rates rapidly to dampen surging inflation but was concerned it could do more harm than good.
Source: The Bond Buyer