MNI POLICY: Fed's Kashkari: No Reason Yet to Lift Rates

--Not At Maximum Employment Yet

By Jean Yung

     WASHINGTON (MNI) - The Federal Reserve might be "overdoing it" with its

interest rate increases as the economy has yet to reach full employment,

Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari said Monday. 

     "I don't see any reason yet that we should be moving interest rates up and

tapping the brakes," he told a forum in Minnetonka, Minn. 

     Wage growth has picked up a bit on the back of tax cuts and increased

federal government spending but remains modest, a signal that the labor market

is not yet at maximum employment, he said. 

     "We've been wrong for the past couple of years," he added. "We keep saying

we're at maximum employment and then 200,000 people per month are coming out of

the woodwork and taking jobs." 

     Separately, the Fed is not yet seeing any impact of newly imposed trade

restrictions on investment and growth, he said. 

     Kashkari does not vote on interest rates this year. 

--MNI Washington Bureau; +1 202-371-2121; email: jean.yung@marketnews.com

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