Fed’s Hammack signals holding rates steady for months, WSJ reports

Dec 21 (Reuters) – Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President Beth Hammack said she sees no need to change interest rates for months after the central bank cut rates at its last three meetings, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday.

Hammack opposed recent rate cuts as she is more worried about elevated inflation than the potential labor-market fragility that prompted officials to lower rates by a cumulative 75 basis points over the past several months,the report added.

Hammack told the Journal the Fed didn’t need to change its benchmark interest rate, currently in a range between 3.5% and 3.75%, at least until spring.

“My base case is that we can stay here for some period of time, until we get clearer evidence that either inflation is coming back down to target or the employment side is weakening more materially,” Hammack told the Journal in a podcast interview on Thursday, citing inflation concerns.

(Reporting by Abu Sultan in Bengaluru; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Ros Russell)

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