Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller told CNBC on Friday that the central bank may need to enact one or more 50-basis-point interest rate hikes this year to tame inflation.
Though he voted this week for just a 25-basis-point move due to uncertainty from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Waller said he thinks the Fed may need to be more aggressive soon.
“I really favor front-loading our rate hikes, that we need to do more withdrawal of accommodation now if we want to have an impact on inflation later this year and next year,” he told CNBC’s Steve Liesman during a live “Squawk Box” interview. “So in that sense, the way to front-load it is to pull some rate hikes forward, which would imply 50 basis points at one or multiple meetings in the near future.”
In addition to the rate hikes, Waller said he thinks the Fed needs to start reducing its bond holdings soon.
The central bank balance sheet has ballooned to nearly $9 trillion, and officials are preparing the process to start rolling off some of their holdings. Waller said that process should start “in the next meeting or two.”
“We’re in a different place than we were before,” he said. “We have a much bigger balance sheet, the economy’s in a much different position. Inflation is raging. So, we’re in a position where we could actually draw down a large amount of liquidity out of the system without really doing much damage.”
This is breaking news. Please check back here for updates.
Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/18/fed-governor-waller-says-half-point-rate-hikes-could-be-needed-to-tame-inflation.html