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Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic on Monday was cool to the idea of the central bank hiking rates by three-quarters of a percentage point.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Bostic said the plan to hike rates by 50 basis points over the next couple of meetings was adequate.
“For me, 50 basis-points is already a pretty aggressive move. I don’t think we need to be moving even more aggressively,” Bostic said.
The Atlanta Fed president said he wants to get the Fed’s benchmark rate “into” the neutral range — which he suggested was a Fed funds rate in a range of 2%-2.5%.
“From my view, we’re going to move a couple of times — maybe two, many three times — see what happens,” Bostic said. “See how the economy responds, see if inflation continues to move closer to our 2% target. And then we can take a pause and see how things are going.”
Last week, the Fed raised its benchmark rate by half a percentage point to a range of 0.75%-1%. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell signaled his intention to engineer half-point moves at the June and July meetings, which would push rates up to a 1.75%-2% level.
