“I’m open to the idea that we can move a little bit more slowly from here,” the newspaper quoted Kashkari as saying in a Friday interview that was published on Sunday.
However Kashkari, a member of the central bank’s rate-setting monetary policy committee, cautioned that his mind was not yet made up: “I would object to any kind of declaration that we’re done.”
To contend with stubbornly high inflation following the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. central bank has raised sharply over the past year, including a 25-basis-point bump adopted earlier this month, bringing benchmark lending rates to a range of 5%- 5.25%, the highest level since before the 2008 financial meltdown.
While inflation has shown signs of moderating since the summer of 2022, it remains well above the Fed’s 2% target. The Fed has faced calls to refrain from further tightening to lessen the risk of driving the U.S. economy into recession.
