(Reuters) – Chicago Federal Reserve Bank President Charles Evans on Friday repeated his view that the U.S. central bank ought to get policy to “a bit above” 4.5% by early next year and then hold it there so as to restrain growth and bring down too-high inflation.
“Front-loading was a good thing, given how far below neutral rates were” as recently as March, when they were near zero, Evans told the regional Fed bank’s Community Bankers Symposium earlier Friday. “But overshooting is costly, too, and there is great uncertainty about how restrictive policy must actually become, so this is going to put a premium on the strategy of getting to a place and a level where policy can plan to rest and evaluate data and developments.”
The remarks were shortened version of similar comments given two weeks ago; the bank posted a video of Evans’ presentation on its website.
(Reporting by Ann Saphir; editing by Diane Craft)