Fed’s Evans Sees Interest Rates Peaking at 4.50–4.75 Percent

U.S. Dollar banknote in this illustration taken on July 17, 2022. Dado Ruvic/Illustration/Reuters

The U.S. Federal Reserve will need to raise interest rates to a range between 4.50 percent and 4.75 percent, Chicago Fed President Charles Evans said on Tuesday, a more aggressive stance than he has previously embraced that underscores the central bank’s hardening resolve to quash excessively high inflation.

Evans also said that he does not see “recession-like” unemployment rate numbers ahead, even as the Fed’s actions result in below-trend economic growth and a softening in the labor market to bring inflation back down to the central bank’s 2 percent goal.