MNI BRIEF: Kashkari 'Open Minded' About 25 Or 50BP March Hike

Minneapolis Federal Reserve President Neel Kashkari said Wednesday he's "open minded" about raising interest rates by 25 or 50 basis points at this month's meeting, and the bigger issue is the signal sent in the FOMC's "dot plots" where he favors signaling a higher path.

“I lean towards continuing to raise further” and “pushing up my policy path,” he said during a town hall talk in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

Wage gains are now too large to be consistent with the Fed's 2% inflation goal and it's "concerning" there's little evidence interest-rate hikes are paring service price gains, he said. “We’d like to avoid a recession, but we know we need to get inflation down, that’s job one.” (See: MNI INTERVIEW: Fed Could Hike Rates More Than Expected-Hoenig) He also said the risk of doing too little is much greater than over-tightening.