MNI BRIEF: Kashkari Sees Taper Coming, Perhaps Around Yearend

Minneapolis Federal Reserve President Neel Kashkari said Tuesday it's clear the U.S. economy is building up the substantial progress that will be needed before paring back asset purchases, and said such a move could be coming around the end of this year.

On the idea of making substantial progress that would meet the Fed's test for pulling back on QE, Kashkari said "it's a question of when, not a question of if." Inflation at the moment appears high but mostly driven by transitory factors while a lot of slack remains in the job market, he said.

"There is a lot of public discussion about will it be at the end of this year, will it be at the beginning of next year, those seem like reasonable ranges of deliberation," he said at the Pacific Northwest Economic Regional Annual Summit when asked about tapering QE.