MNI BRIEF: Fed's Bostic Ready For June Pause In Rate Moves

Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Raphael Bostic said Monday he's comfortable waiting to see how the economy is reacting to past interest rates increases before entertaining any further hikes.

"We’ve had a lot of tightening over the last year or so, and the policy works with a lag," he told a Richmond Fed conference. "I’m comfortable waiting a little bit to see how things pan out."

"Let’s take it one meeting at a time and just let things play out. People have a good sense of our commitment to getting inflation to 2% and beyond that I’d like this to be as orderly a movement as possible," he said.

Richmond Fed President Tom Barkin was more circumspect, saying he'd "like to be convinced" the combined effect of rate increases, credit tightening, waning consumer balance sheets and fiscal stimulus will bring demand down and inflation down. (See: MNI INTERVIEW: Fed's Barkin 'Very Open' To More Tightening)