Loretta Mester, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, said there was no “compelling” reason to wait for another interest-rate hike, in a recent interview. Mester told the Financial Times in a recent interview that more must be done to bring U.S. inflation under control, rather than await for more economic results. Some Fed policymakers have suggested that…

Last month, the Federal Reserve voted to raise interest rates by 25 basis points, but two central bank officials revealed that they advocated for larger rate hikes to combat elevated inflation. St. Louis Fed Bank President James Bullard told reporters at the Greater Jackson Chamber in Jackson, Tennessee, during an event that he advanced the…

WASHINGTON—Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank President Loretta Mester said it will take two years for inflation to fall to the central bank’s 2 percent target, adding that it will be “moving down” gradually from the current level. A surge in inflation, which is at its highest level in 40 years, has made hawks of nearly all…

Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank President Loretta Mester recently said that she can’t rule out the possibility of a 75-basis-point interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve, depending on where inflation is heading. “We don’t rule out 75 forever, right? The cadence we’re going now seems about right to me,” Mester said during a May 10…

The Federal Reserve’s aim is to raise rates quickly enough to bring down inflation without pushing the U.S. economy into recession or damaging the strong jobs market, Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank President Loretta Mester signaled on Thursday. “Currently, labor markets in the U.S. are very tight and inflation is very elevated,” Mester said in remarks…

Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank President Loretta Mester on Tuesday said she would like to raise interest rates to about 2.5 percent by year end, with bigger rate hikes in the first half, and further tightening next year to bring down high inflation and keep it from getting entrenched. “I find it appealing to front-load some…

The Federal Reserve will need to move more aggressively to remove accommodation than it did following the Great Recession by raising interest rates at a faster pace and shrinking its balance sheet more quickly, Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester said on Thursday. “Barring a material change in the economy, I anticipate that it will be…

NEW YORK—It is time for the Federal Reserve to start removing accommodation and raising interest rates, but it is not necessary for the central bank to launch its rate hike cycle with a half percentage point increase, Cleveland Federal Reserve President Loretta Mester said on Wednesday. “I don’t like taking anything off the table,” Mester…

The Federal Reserve may need to raise interest rates at least three times this year and begin running down its balance sheet to respond to a tight labor market and inflation that is persistently high and more broad-based, Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester said on Tuesday. “If the economy in March looks like it does…

The Omicron coronavirus variant threatens to fuel soaring inflation in the United States by further pressuring supply chains and worsening worker shortages, Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank President Loretta Mester told the Financial Times. “If it turns out to be a bad variant it could exacerbate the upward price pressures we’ve seen from the supply-chain problems,”…