According to her prepared remarks to the Connecticut Bankers Association on Saturday, US inflation is still “too high,” and Bowman said she anticipates it will be appropriate for the Federal Open Market Committee “to raise rates further and hold them at a restrictive level for some time to return inflation to our 2% goal in a timely manner.”
Bowman emphasised that “high energy prices could reverse some of the progress we have seen on inflation in recent months.”
September saw a significant gain in US employment, supporting the need for another Fed interest rate increase. The median prediction provided following the Federal Reserve’s September policy meeting indicated that the central bank expects inflation to remain over goal for at least until the end of 2025. This was mentioned by Bowman on Saturday.
“This suggests that further policy tightening will be needed to bring inflation down in a sustainable and timely manner,” she said. “This, along with my own expectation that progress on inflation is likely to be slow given the current level of monetary policy restraint, suggests that inflation will be brought down in a sustainable and timely manner.”
Bowman again calls for further rate increases to stop inflation in its tracks.
When asked specifically if she would support a rise in interest rates at the Fed’s upcoming meeting on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1, Bowman remained mum.