[１日 ロイター] – Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Barr on Wednesday suggested he was one of the policymakers behind slowing the pace of rate hikes, prompting the U.S. He said it could take place at the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC).
“I think we are in restrictive territory, and we are at a stage where we can reach a sufficiently restrictive interest rate level at a slower pace,” he said at the American Enterprise Institute. .
“I think we’re going to look at this, and that’s a smart thing to do. It gives us room to start adjusting policy a bit, how high interest rates need to go to get the job done, and how long it will take.” “We can reconsider whether we need to maintain standards.”
The Fed has raised interest rates by 75 basis points (bp) in the past four consecutive meetings. The pace of tightening was the most rapid since the 1980s, with policy rates between 3.75% and 4%.
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said on Nov. 30 that the Fed could slow the pace of rate hikes “as early as December.”
U.S. stocks soared on Wednesday after Powell’s remarks. It was taken as a dovish message that the current policy tightening would end sooner than expected.
Mr. Barr’s remarks were largely in line with Mr. Powell’s, but Mr. Barr discouraged such market views. “It would be a mistake to think that the change in the pace of rate hikes reflects a change in the seriousness of the project (to lower inflation),” he said.
“It will take a long time to actually get inflation down to 2%, so interest rates will stay high for a long time,” he said.
