Lockhart Urges Fed to Take ‘Cautious’ Approach to Higher Rates

Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Dennis Lockhart said the U.S. central bank should take a “cautious and conservative” approach as it moves toward starting to raise interest rates around the middle of this year.

“The risk manager in me will lean to preferring a later date for the first policy move to an earlier one,” Lockhart, who votes on monetary policy this year, said in the text of a speech in Atlanta today. “I supported and expect to continue to support a patient approach, one that is relatively cautious and conservative as regards the pace of normalization of rates.”