New York Fed President John Williams and Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic have pushed back against growing expectations from investors for early interest rate cuts as soon as March next year.
Williams stated during an interview with CNBC that it’s still too early for Fed officials to consider rate cuts as they assess whether their fiscal policy remains tight enough to push inflation down toward their 2% target. “We aren’t really talking about rate cuts,” Williams admitted, adding that markets are reacting more strongly than what policymakers have projected.
Bostic, who will vote on monetary policy next year, revealed that he expects the Fed to implement two interest rate cuts next year. He added, however, that he expects cuts to only be implemented in the third quarter at the earliest. Still, some policymakers appear more open to rate cuts, with Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee not ruling out the possibility of an interest rate cut as early as March.