ASPEN, Colo. (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Reserve must be ready to take action if slowing economic growth fails to curb inflation stemming from higher food and energy prices, one of its top policy-makers said on Tuesday."Until we have a clear sense of what will prevail, monetary policy makers must remain poised to act if slowing growth fails to contain inflationary pressures," Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Richard Fisher said.
Fisher is a voting member of the Fed's interest-rate setting committee this year and has dissented at every meeting so far in favor either of higher rates, or of less aggressive easing. This has earned him a reputation as one of the most hawkish, or anti-inflation, officials at the U.S. central bank, a perception with which he said he is "very comfortable."
"Unless the python that is the U.S. economy can quickly pass the recent burst of cost-push pressures, we risk a reinforcing spreading of inflationary impulses and expectations," he told the Progress and Freedom Foundation.
Read More
