With the currency policy decision meeting of the U.S. Central Bank, the Federal Reserve (Fed), scheduled for next month, Fed Commissioners are publicly continuing remarks that the benchmark interest rate should be held at its current level.
Reuters reported on the 13th (local time) that Beth Hammack, president of the Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank, said at an Economic Club conversation in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, that she thinks currency policy needs to be kept somewhat restrictive to return inflation to the target level (2%).
She added that to keep currency policy at a restrictive level, the benchmark rate needs to be maintained near its current level. Hammack also expressed a negative view on additional rate cuts in a public speech on the 6th, saying the current currency policy stance is only slightly restrictive.
Hammack does not have a vote at the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting in December, but will have one next year, so her remarks have drawn Wall Street's attention.
Alberto Musalem, president of the St. Louis Fed, who holds a vote at the December FOMC meeting, also said at a public event in Indiana that we need to proceed carefully with rate cuts, adding that he thinks there is limited room for additional easing without currency policy becoming overly aligned with fiscal policy.
Susan Collins, president of the Boston Fed, also said the day before that based on her baseline outlook, it seems appropriate to hold the benchmark rate at its current level for the time being to balance risks between inflation and employment in a highly uncertain environment like now.
By contrast, Federal Reserve Governor Steven Meier, known as a "Trump economy strategist," has argued that the Fed should speed up rate cuts, including calling for a 0.50 percentage point cut at the FOMC meeting in October. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said at a press conference after last month's FOMC meeting that an additional cut in December is not a foregone conclusion, suggesting a strong divergence of views among FOMC members.