Cleveland Fed

Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester discussed inflation, the economy and Fed interest rate increases in an interview with The Wall Street Journal on Friday. Here is a transcript, lightly edited for clarity.NICK TIMIRAOS: When you talk about data dependence, what does that mean in the context of both determining the ultimate destination for how high you think rates have to rise? And then also the tactical considerations that go into getting from here—which right now would be 2.4% on the…

Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President Loretta Mestersaid Wednesday that the central bank might no longer be able to ignore sources of inflation that monetary policy can’t easily address given how those types of rising prices can affect consumers’ moods.Ms. Mester, who is a voting member of the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee this year, assessed in her prepared text what inflation expectations mean for central-bank policy. She didn’t address the near-term monetary-policy outlook. Federal Reserve Bank…

Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President Loretta Mester said the U.S. central bank needs to press forward with aggressive rate rises, and that by early fall it may be able to take stock of whether it can slow down or will need to speed up the process of removing support from the economy. “Given economic conditions, ongoing increases in the fed-funds rate are called for, and unless there are some big surprises, I expect it to be appropriate to raise the policy rate another 50 basis points at each of…