Fed's Bullard sees more interest rate hikes ahead and no U.S. recession
St. Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard said Wednesday that the central bank will continue raising rates until it sees compelling evidence that inflation is falling.
The central bank official said he expects another 1.5 percentage points or so in interest rate increases this year as the Fed continues to battle the highest inflation levels since the early 1980s.
«I think we'll probably have to be higher for longer in order to get the evidence that we need to see that inflation is actually turning around on all dimensions and in a convincing way coming lower, not just a tick lower here and there,» Bullard said during a live "Squawk Box" interview on CNBC.
That message of continued rate hikes is consistent with other Fed speakers this week, including regional presidents Loretta Mester of Cleveland, Charles Evans of Chicago and Mary Daly in San Francisco. Each said Tuesday that the inflation fight is far from over and more monetary policy tightening will be needed.
Both Bullard and Mester are voting members this year on the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee. The group last week approved a second consecutive 0.75 percentage point increase to the Fed's benchmark borrowing rate.
If Bullard has his way, the rate will continue rising to a range of 3.75%-4% by the end of the year. After starting 2022 near zero, the rate has now come up to a range of 2.25%-2.5%.
Consumer price inflation is running at a 12-month rate of 9.1%, its highest since November 1981. Even throwing out the highs and lows of inflation, as the Dallas Fed does with its «trimmed mean» estimate, inflation is running at 4.3%.
«We're going to have to see convincing evidence across the board, headline and other measures of core inflation, all
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