Federal Reserve policymakers on Thursday sounded sanguine about the economic impact of the latest COVID-19 variant, but flagged rising inflation in remarks that suggested growing consensus for an earlier end to bond buys and, perhaps, earlier interest rate hikes next year. Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic told the Reuters Next conference on Thursday it would be appropriate to end the central bank’s bond-buying program by the end of March to allow the Fed to raise rates to deal with inflation. The Fed, which began tapering its bond-buying last month at a pace that would end the program by June, is set to consider compressing that timeline when policymakers meet on Dec. 14 and 15. With robust growth, an improving job market and inflation more than twice the Fed’s 2 percent target, “I think having this finished some time before the end of the first quarter would be in our interest,” …