Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller on Thursday laid out the case for a “concerted” effort to rein in inflation, calling for raising interest rates a full percentage point by mid-year, starting with a half-percentage-point hike in March if data in coming weeks continues to point to an “exceedingly hot” economy.
“I believe appropriate interest rate policy brings the target range up to 1 to 1.25 percent early in the summer,” Waller said at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Economic Forecast Project. The Fed should also start trimming its $9 trillion balance sheet “no later than” its July meeting, he said.
