Economics

Yellen Leans Toward Near-Term Rate Rise Without Detailing Timing

  • Fed chair says move probably appropriate in ‘coming months’
  • Says U.S. economy continuing to improve, inflation to rise

Janet Yellen speaks during a Radcliffe Day event at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on May 27, 2016.

Photographer: Scott Eisen/Bloomberg
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Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen threw her support behind a growing consensus at the central bank in favor of another interest rate increase soon, while steering clear of specifying the timing of such a move.

“It’s appropriate -- and I’ve said this in the past -- for the Fed to gradually and cautiously increase our overnight interest rate over time,” Yellen said Friday during at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. “Probably in the coming months such a move would be appropriate.”