The chief of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago said Thursday he expects the fed to raise interest rates once more in 2017.
Chicago Fed Chief Charles Evans said he would be “very surprised” if the Fed raised rates more than once in 2017, a statement that stands in the face of some experts’ predictions that multiple rate increases were expected.
The economist sees a possible situation where “growth would be so strong and inflation would pick up that we could get more than that, but I’d be very surprised at that this year,” Evans told reporters. He hinted that multiple rate increases could come, but only if “inflation is confidently headed back to 2 percent.”
The Fed raised interest rates twice since President Donald Trump took the Oval Office. After the last rate increase in March, Fed officials hinted that two more rate hikes could occur if the economy looked like it was headed towards its target of 2 percent growth. (RELATED: Fed Raises Rates For Second Time In Trump’s Presidency)
Fed officials have been rather vocal lately, with Evans comments coming one day after William Dudley, New York Federal Reserve Bank president and CEO, promised Trump’s steadfast push for protectionist trade will lead the U.S. economy to a “dead end.”
There are many approaches to dealing with the costs of globalization, but protectionism is a dead end,” Dudley said Thursday at the Bombay Stock Exchange. “Trying to achieve a high standard of living by following a policy of economic isolationism will fail.”
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