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Plosser said in an interview with broadcaster
CNBC that even though inflation was below the Fed's preferred
level of 2 percent, there was no reason to keep interest rates
at current crisis-era levels, especially with U.S. unemployment
now so low.
"That are many indicators that tell us rates are too low,"
Plosser said. "We have been at zero for nearly six years and
there is no precedent in history, even when inflation is too
low, to have rates at zero when unemployment rates are as low as
they are.
"We are really behaving in a way that is outside historical
norms and that should make us nervous."
Plosser, who is due to step down as Philadelphia Fed president
next March, is among the minority of Fed officials who want to
close the book on ultra-easy monetary policy sooner than
mid-2015, which is when most of his colleagues see a rate rise.
He also played down recent jitters in financial markets prompted
by the prospect of a rise in interest rates and the potential
negative impact on the U.S. economy from a climb in the dollar.
"There could be some reverberations of a higher dollar on some
companies, on the U.S. economy, but I think it is going to be
relatively small," Plosser said. "We shouldn't be responding to
every little wiggle of the financial markets.
"Our job is not to suppress dollar volatility, not to suppress
the adjustment of asset prices. We need to keep our eyes focused
on our longer-term objectives."
(Reporting by Marc Jones and Jamie McGeever; Editing by
Catherine Evans)
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