WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Federal Reserve is “coalescing” around a plan to begin reducing its $120 billion in monthly bond purchases, St. Louis Federal Reserve president James Bullard said Thursday, adding he expects a “good assessment” of where things stand in a Friday speech by Fed chair Jerome Powell.
“We don’t need the asset purchases at this point,” Bullard said on CNBC, repeating his call for the bond buying to end by early next year.
“We will be able to get to a good consensus on the committee and get to a good wind-down process. It does seem that we are coalescing around a plan,” Bullard said, though he did not detail when that might be agreed.
(Reporting by Howard Schneider; editing by John Stonestreet)
