MNI BRIEF: Bullard-Get Restrictive Enough As Soon As Possible

The Federal Reserve should move interest rates to a sufficiently restrictive level as soon as possible to ensure inflation continues slowing, St. Louis President James Bullard told reporters Thursday.

“The policy rate is still a little bit below the sufficiently restrictive zone, so I think it would behoove the committee to get into that zone as soon as we can without ignoring the data,” he said during a briefing.

“We’ll take a look at where we are before we get to the next meeting and make a decision then,” he added, declining to say whether he favors stepping down to smaller quarter point rate increases at the Fed’s February decision.