FAIRFAX, Va.—U.S. interest rates have room to rise further given the remarkable strength of the U.S. economy, the Federal Reserve’s newest regional Fed president said on Monday in his first major speech on monetary policy since he was appointed.
“Monetary policy is still pretty accommodative...when unemployment is low and inflation is effectively at our target, we probably ought to go to neutral in that environment,” Richmond Fed president Thomas Barkin told an audience at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. He is a voting member of the Fed’s rate-setting committee this year after having joined the Richmond Fed in January.
