FXStreet (Córdoba) – Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Dennis Lockhart told Atlanta press Club Monday the Fed is close to raising interest rates but also reiterated there is no preordained date, and the timing will be data dependent.
He stated that economy’s progress since the start of the year has been “quite encouraging”. There is evidence of economy’s healing and on a path to achieving the Fed’s mandated objectives, what makes him “comfortable that the economy can handle a gradually rising interest-rate environment”.
“Much progress has been achieved since December 2008, when the Fed’s policy rate reached zero, and mid-2009, when the recession ended. That progress has been accomplished with the support of extraordinary monetary policy. Current and prospective economic conditions increasingly do not demand the most aggressive stance of policy”, Lockhart said. “I think the time to begin normalizing monetary conditions is close. Once underway, the process of raising interest rates to more normal, sustainable levels will likely be gradual. It has been a long story, sometimes frustratingly so, but one I am increasingly confident will have a happy ending”.
(Market News Provided by FXstreet)