Reuters
Fed to raise interest rates to 4% next year, Evans says
(Reuters) -Wednesday’s consumer price index report showing U.S. inflation didn’t accelerate in July was the first “positive” reading on price pressures since the Federal Reserve began tightening policy, Chicago Fed President Charles Evans said, even as he signaled he believes the Fed has plenty more work to do. With consumer prices unchanged last month compared to June, but up 8.5% from a year earlier, inflation is still “unacceptably” high, and the Fed will likely need to lift its policy rate, currently in the 2.25%-2.5% range, to 3.25%-3.5% this year and to 3.75%-4% by the end of next year, Evans said. The remarks suggest Evans, among the 19 central bankers who set U.S. monetary policy, expects to soon slow what’s been the Fed’s steepest round of interest-rate hikes in decades.
