Evans Says Fed Should Delay Liftoff, Inflation Risks Overblown

  • Inflation headwinds may not abate until middle of 2016
  • Later liftoff and gradual tightening is best path, Evans says

Charles Evans, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

Photographer: Price Chambers/Bloomberg
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U.S. monetary policy makers should delay raising interest rates until inflation shows signs of sustained upward movement, which may not happen until mid-2016, said Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago President Charles Evans.

"Before raising rates, I would like to have more confidence than I do today that inflation is indeed beginning to head higher," Evans said Monday in remarks prepared for a speech in Milwaukee. “I think the best policy is to take a very gradual approach to normalization.”