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"Turning to inflation, things are still on track, despite a
couple of months trending in the wrong direction," Harker said
in prepared remarks for a speech to an economics conference in
Reading, Pennsylvania.
He added that he still forecasts inflation reaching the Fed's 2
percent target around the end of this year.
The U.S. central bank has raised its benchmark interest rate
twice in the past six months - in December and March - and is
expected to do so again at its June 13-14 policy meeting. Some
Fed officials, however, have expressed concerns about stilted
progress on inflation.
Harker, who is a voting member of the Fed's rate-setting
committee this year, also said the U.S. economy was now
"essentially at normal," that there is very little slack left in
the labor market and that he expected the national unemployment
rate to drop as low as 4.2 percent by the end of 2018.
He also remained bullish on wages, estimating they would grow
between 2.5 percent and 3 percent this year.
"This is a very good sign; it's one of the things that's been
missing as the recovery has unfolded," he said.
U.S. job growth slowed in May, but the unemployment rate fell to
a 16-year low of 4.3 percent, the Labor Department reported
earlier on Friday. The same report showed average hourly
earnings rose 4 cents, or 0.2 percent, last month after a
similar gain in April. That left the year-on-year increase in
wages at 2.5 percent.
(Reporting by Lindsay Dunsmuir; Editing by Paul Simao)
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