Fed's Daly warns it would be 'premature' to think rate cuts are around the corner

foxbusiness.com:

San Francisco Federal Reserve President Mary Daly gives her outlook on the U.S. economy and discusses the Fed's interest rate plan on 'Making Money.'

San Francisco Federal Reserve President Mary Daly on Friday pumped the brakes on Wall Street's aggressive interest rate cut bets. 

During an interview with FOX Business' Charles Payne, Daly warned that it would be «premature» to think rate reductions are around the corner, and said she needs to see further evidence that inflation is returning to the central bank's 2% target rate.

«While I think it’s appropriate for us to look forward and ask when would policy adjustments be necessary, so we don’t put a stranglehold on the economy, it’s really premature to think that that’s around the corner,» she said. 

Daly, who is a voting member of the policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee this year, stressed the need to see signs that inflation is falling «consistently and sustainably for me to feel confident enough to start adjusting the policy rate.»

WHEN WILL THE FEDERAL RESERVE START TO CUT INTEREST RATES?

Mary Daly, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, speaks during an event at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, California, on Tuesday, March 26, 2019.  (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)

Central bankers signaled in December during their final meeting of the year that their nearly two-year battle against inflation has finally come to an end — and that a series of rate reductions are in the pipeline.

Updated quarterly economic projections laid out after the meeting show that a majority of Federal Open Market Committee officials expect rates to fall to 4.6% by the end of 2024, suggesting that there will be at least three