(Reuters) – Federal Reserve Governor Michelle Bowman on Monday said she remains willing to support another increase in the central bank’s policy interest rate at a future meeting if incoming data shows progress on inflation is stalling or proceeding too slowly.
Bowman, in prepared remarks to a banking conference, said inflation remains too high and expects progress in lowering it to be slow “given the current level of monetary policy restraint.”
“I remain willing to support raising the federal funds rate at a future meeting if the incoming data indicates that progress on inflation has stalled or is too slow to bring inflation to 2% in a timely way,” Bowman said.
Energy prices also pose a renewed risk to inflation, she said, noting that the latest measure published on Friday of the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge – the personal consumption expenditures price index (PCE) for August – showed that overall inflation rose, in part due to higher oil prices.
“I see a continued risk that high energy prices could reverse some of the progress we have seen on inflation in recent months,” said Bowman, who has emerged as among the most hawkish members of the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee.
Last month the Fed left its benchmark rate unchanged in a range of 5.25% to 5.5% but projections from policymakers released at the time indicated a majority of them saw one more quarter-percentage point increase by year end.
Bowman again also took issue with a slate of regulatory proposals being considered by the Fed and other U.S. bank overseers. She said regulators seem to be engaging in “heavy-handed” supervision and should consider if such an approach is appropriate.
(Reporting By Dan Burns and Pete Schroeder; Editing by Anna Driver)
