New York Fed President John Williams told Bloomberg TV that a 50bps rate hike in May is a “reasonable option” because the “federal funds rate is very low”. He added, “we do need to move policy back to more neutral levels.”
“We need to really focus on bringing inflation down to our 2% longer-run goal, and to do that over the next few years. So, that is the number-one focus, and I say that because the economy is strong,” Williams said. “So I do think from a monetary policy point of view, it does make sense for us to move expeditiously towards more-normal levels of the federal funds rate.”
“I think the economy can withstand real interest rates at neutral or a bit above,” he said. “We’ve seen a dramatic, significant movement in yields and financial conditions over the past several months and that’s already positioning policy well to get supply and demand back into balance.”
