Chicago Federal Reserve President Charles Evans said on Friday the US central bank could raise interest rates three times this year, faster than he had expected just a few months ago and in line with the majority of his colleagues.
The comments from Evans, a voting member of the Fed’s policy committee this year, reinforced the view that the Fed could step up the pace of its rate hiking campaign if the incoming Trump administration unleashed a fiscal stimulus.
Evans has been an outspoken proponent of low-interest rate policy for several years.
“I still think two (Fed rate hikes) is not an unreasonable expectation,” Evans told reporters in Chicago, adding that if the economic data comes in stronger than expected, “three is not going to be implausible.”
Two other US policymakers, Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester and Richmond Fed President Jeffrey Lacker, said Friday they would support even faster rate hikes.