WASHINGTON—Richmond Federal Reserve president Thomas Barkin said Friday he is comfortable with further interest rate increases if coming data does not show that weakening demand for goods and services is feeding through to slower inflation. “I am still looking to be convinced of the plausible story that slowing demand returns inflation relatively quickly” to the…

CHARLOTTE, N.C.—The U.S. economy is slowing as consumers are buffeted by inflation and pandemic-driven demand for goods returns to more normal levels, Richmond Federal Reserve president Thomas Barkin said on Tuesday. “I definitely see signs of softening,” Barkin said, with the evidence “most pronounced in lower income households” and in parts of the economy that…

Richmond Federal Reserve Bank President Tom Barkin on Thursday said he would be “conceptually” open to raising interest rates by a bigger-than-usual half-of-a-percentage point increment, but does not see a need for it now. “Do I think there’s a screaming need to do it right now?” Barkin said at a virtual meeting at the Stanford…