Mary Daly, president of the San Francisco Federal Reserve, said Wednesday that she supports raising interest rates aggressively until inflation is reduced to a reasonable level. Those steps are most likely to entail multiple 50 basis point hikes at upcoming meetings, followed by a possible respite to assess how the central bank’s tightening of policy combines with other factors to address the massive surge in consumer prices. “We need to do that expeditiously, and I see a couple of 50 basis point hikes immediately in the next couple of meetings to get there,” she told CNBC’s Steve Liesman during an interview on “TechCheck.” “Then we need to look around and see what else is going on.”
The Fed will need to see much more progress before it can begin to taper its efforts, Daly said, noting that there are some minor signs of a slowing economy and reduced inflation. “We aren’t really there yet, so we need to see those data on a slowing economy bringing demand and supply back in balance, and I need to see some real progress on inflation,” she said. “Otherwise, I would think we just move the rate until we find ourselves at least at neutral and then we look around to see what else needs to be done.” Thus far this year, the Fed has increased rates by a total of 75 basis points, including a 50 basis point increase in May. A basis point equals 0.01%
