MNI BRIEF: Bostic Says Fed Needs To Hike in March, Favors 25BP

Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Raphael Bostic said Monday that he continues to believe that the U.S. central bank should begin raising its federal funds rate in March and favors a 25 basis point move for now.

"I think that interest rates need to move," Bostic said, noting that the Fed has been in an "emergency stance" for the better part of two years. "We need to get off that stance and get to interest rates being in a much more normalized level."

"Today, as we speak, I'm still in favor of a 25 basis point move at the March meeting," he said in a Harvard University event, noting that additional inflation data is to be released before the FOMC's March meeting. "To the extent that we start to see that [month-over-month inflation] trend down, then I'll be comfortable pretty much with a 25 basis point move. If that continues to persist at elevated levels or even move in the other direction, then I'm really going to have to look at a 50 basis point."