A
surge in inflation, which is at its highest level in 40 years,
has made hawks of nearly all Fed policymakers, only one of whom
dissented earlier this week against what was the central bank's
biggest rate increase in more than a quarter of a century.
"It isn't going to be immediate that we see 2% inflation. It
will take a couple of years, but it will be moving down," Mester
said in an interview with CBS News on Sunday.
Mester said she was not predicting a recession despite slowing
growth.
"We do have growth slowing to a little bit below trend growth
and we do have the unemployment rate moving up a little bit. And
that is OK, we want to see some slowing in demand to get it in
line with supply," Mester added, referring to forecasts
submitted in the past week by participants of the Federal Open
Market Committee's meeting.
Policymakers currently expect to raise the Fed's benchmark
overnight interest rate, now in a range of 1.50%-1.75%, to at
least 3.4% in the next six months. A year ago, the majority
thought the rate would need to stay near zero until 2023.
On Friday, the Fed called its fight against inflation
"unconditional."
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Lisa
Shumaker)
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