He also said one has to be wary of the inflationary impact of the recent monetary policy easing.

"Personally, for me to change course, given that I stopped (supporting rate cuts) at 3.5%, I'd have to see a very dramatic economic slowdown going on beyond what I'm already discounting," said Fisher, who dissented from the Fed's last three rate cuts.

"I'm already discounting significant anemia," he added.

Fishers said prospects for rate hikes needed to be carefully thought out, and that now was probably not the time to begin pushing for higher rates.

He continued to maintain that growth in the United States is anemic and refused to comment on whether the U.S. Federal Reserve had signalled a pause in the Fed's easing cycle that began earlier in 2007.

"We have a dual mandate. We have to (monitor) growth and inflation," he said. "The readers can study our entrails all they want. That's what makes it interesting. It says what it says, and that's all I'm going to say."

Fisher also said he expected growth to move sideways over the next couple of quarters with the possibility of negative growth. He also said it would take some time for conditions in financial markets to return to normal.

By Erik Kevin Franco, This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it , edited by Stephen Huebl, This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it