Fed's Mester: No progress on inflation, so interest rates need to move higher

Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester said Tuesday that the Federal Reserve needs to continue raising interest rates.

“At some point, you know, as inflation comes down, them my risk calculation will shift as well and we will want to either slow the rate increases, hold for some time and assess the cumulative impact on what we’ve done,” Mester told reporters after a speech to the Economic Club of New York.

“But at this point, my concerns lie more on – we haven’t seen progress on inflation , we have seen some moderation- but to my mind it means we still have to go a little bit further,” Mester said.

“Given current economic conditions and the outlook, in my view, at the point the larger risks come from tightening too little and allowing very high inflation to persist and become embedded in the economy,” Mester said.

Meanwhile, the safe-haven US dollar has gained in a second day while the International Monetary Fund says warns of global recession and has cut its 2023 global growth forecasts further.