Atlanta Fed's Lockhart Says 'Case For Liftoff Will Continue To Firm Up'
November 05 2015 - 2:10PM
Dow Jones News
The case for the Federal Reserve to begin raising short-term
interest rates should "firm up" ahead of its December policy
meeting as risks to the U.S. economic outlook from China's slowdown
and financial-market volatility subside, Federal Reserve Bank of
Atlanta President Dennis Lockhart said Thursday.
"I expect to see a subsiding of the risks that appropriately
led, in my opinion, to a policy hold in September and October," Mr.
Lockhart said in remarks prepared for delivery at a conference in
Bern, Switzerland. "I think the case for liftoff will continue to
firm up."
The Fed last week signaled that it might raise rates "at its
next meeting" in mid-December, and Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen told
U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday that the Dec. 15-16 meeting is a "live
possibility" for the Fed's first rate increase in nearly a decade
so long as the U.S. economy performs as expected.
Headed into last week's policy meeting, "I felt a successful
outcome would be expectations aligning with the view that liftoff
at our upcoming December meeting is a possibility, but not a
certainty," Mr. Lockhart said. "I am satisfied that was
accomplished."
CME Group said Thursday that fed-funds futures suggested a 56%
probability of a rate increase at the Fed's December meeting, up
from roughly a one-in-three chance before the Fed's Oct. 28 policy
statement.
"Earlier this year, I thought economic conditions would evolve
in such a way that liftoff could be justified by the time the
[rate-setting Federal Open Market] Committee met in September," Mr.
Lockhart said. "The economy did more or less evolve in line with
the path I expected," but "emerging risks — that is, open questions
about spillover effects from the slowdown in Chinese growth and the
sudden spike in volatility in global financial markets — called for
some delay. For me, it was a close call, but I thought holding off
was prudent."
Even so, he said, "I am not concerned that the FOMC is behind
the curve. Liftoff remains a close call."
More broadly, Mr. Lockhart said, "it is apparent to me that we
are in the midst of transition from an extraordinary period that
called for unconventional tools, to a period where we again utilize
rule-like benchmarks" to guide U.S. monetary policy.
Write to Ben Leubsdorf at ben.leubsdorf@wsj.com
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 05, 2015 13:55 ET (18:55 GMT)
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