A cyclist passes the Federal Reserve building in Washington, DC, U.S., August 22, 2018. REUTERS/Chris Wattie/File Photo Acquire Licensing Rights
Nov 7 (Reuters) – The Federal Reserve may have to do more to bring inflation back down to its 2% target given the recent run of resilient economic data, Minneapolis Fed Bank President Neel Kashkari said on Tuesday.
“When activity continues to run this hot, that makes me question if policy is as tight as we assume it currently is,” Kashkari said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. “So if you saw inflation tick back up and you saw continued very strong economic activity in the real side of the economy that would tell me we might need to do more.”
He added he does not currently see a lot of evidence the economy is weakening.
The U.S. central bank last week held its benchmark interest rate steady at between 5.25% and 5.50% but signaled it remained open minded on the need to raise borrowing costs further to bring inflation back down to the target rate.
Kashkari’s comments echo those he gave on Monday in which he said the Fed had more to do to tame price pressures.
Reporting by Lindsay Dunsmuir; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama
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