Kansas City Fed President Esther George told Bloomberg that the spike in Covid is a “risk to the outlook”, but her contacts in the region said the economy “continues to grow at a strong rate”, consumers are “still spending” and labor markets is “continuing to heal”. The outlook “remains a positive one”. The virus is not expected to derail the economy”.
George also maintained that the progress the economy has made suggests “we’ve come to a point where we can begin to ease up on the amount of accommodation”. It’s “time to begin to make those adjustments” on asset purchases.
As policymakers are coming into the September meeting, she said, we will continue to talk about how the economy has unfolded and the timing for adjustments to those asset purchases”.
