The Federal Reserve may need to raise U.S. interest rates four or more times this year if high inflation persists, Atlanta Federal Reserve bank President Raphael Bostic said on Thursday, in a further sign that policymakers are becoming increasingly leery inflation will not begin to abate soon. “The data may come in perhaps more pessimistic in terms of how well we are doing on inflation and if it does I’m going to move my view, maybe 4 (hikes), and depending on how things go it may be more than that,” Bostic said during a virtual event hosted by the Atlanta Fed. Bostic’s latest comments comes two weeks after he said that he was leaning towards an outlook of supporting four interest rate increase compared to his assessment in December that three would be needed in 2022. The central bank is gearing up for an interest rate liftoff at its next …