The Federal Reserve should probably skip an interest-rate increase at its upcoming June policy meeting, Philadelphia Fed President Patrick Harker said.
“I think we can take a bit of a skip for a meeting,” Harker said Wednesday during an event at the Philadelphia Fed.
“I am definitely in the camp of thinking about skipping any increase at this meeting, barring what we see in the next few days,” he said, referring to a monthly government report on employment due Friday.
Harker’s comments followed similar remarks from Fed Governor Philip Jefferson, who signaled in a speech released moments before that the US central bank is inclined to keep interest rates steady at the June 13-14 meeting to give policymakers more time to assess the economic outlook.
Fed officials at their last policy meeting earlier this month raised their benchmark interest rate above 5%, marking the latest in a string of increases that began in March 2022, when the rate was nearly zero.
Data out last week showed the Fed’s preferred inflation measures made slower-than-expected progress toward returning to the central bank’s 2% target in April.
That helped boost market expectations for another rate hike in June.
“If we’re going to go into a period where we need to do more tightening, we can do that every other meeting. We don’t have to do it every meeting,” Harker, who votes on policy decisions this year, said.
“I think we have to be ready that we might have to do more in subsequent meetings — and I’m fully aware we have to do that and willing to do that — but I want to give it a little bit of time.”
