(Reuters) – Cleveland Federal Reserve President Loretta Mester said on Friday that she was keeping to her previous forecast made at the end of last year for the U.S. central bank’s interest rate peak as economic data since then has not caused her to change her mind.
“I had my funds rate a little bit above the median in that projection, and I haven’t really seen much change in my outlook for the economy since that time,” Mester said in an interview with broadcaster CNBC.
“So I see that we’re going to have to bring interest rates above 5%…I do think we need to be somewhat about 5% and hold there for a time in order to get inflation on that sustainable downward path.”
Mester was speaking before inflation data was published which showed price pressures accelerating once again, causing investors to bet the Fed will raise interest rates at least three more times.
(Reporting by Lindsay Dunsmuir; Editing by Jane Merriman and Andrea Ricci)
