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Fed's George says the U.S. economy is ready for a rate hike

[August 21, 2014] (Reuters) - The time has come for the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates, a top U.S. central banker said on Thursday, citing improvements in the labor market. 

"I think the economy is already showing signs [of improvement]," Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank President Esther George, who is not a voting member on the Fed's policymaking committee this year, told U.S. network CNBC in an interview.

"I don't want us to be behind the curve in beginning to normalize interest rates," she said. "When you see the economy getting as close as we are to full employment, to stable inflation, it would suggest to me that the time has come to do that."

(Reporting by Jason Lange in Washington; Editing by Bill Trott)

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