Oct 14 (Reuters) - It will soon be time to start reducing the Federal Reserve's asset purchases from the current pace of $120 billion a month, but the central bank is not likely to raise interest rates for at least another year, Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank President Patrick Harker said on Thursday.
"I am in the camp that believes it will soon be time to begin slowly and methodically — frankly, boringly — taper our $120 billion in monthly purchases of Treasury bills and mortgage-backed securities," Harker said in remarks prepared for a virtual discussion, repeating a view he shared last month.
Harker said those asset purchases are doing little to address the supply side issues hindering the labor market recovery.
The Fed official lowered his expectations for how much he expects the U.S. economy to grow this year because of the Delta variant, which damaged consumer confidence and dealt a blow to the leisure and hospitality industry.
Harker now expects the economy to grow by about 5.5% this year and by about 3.5% in 2022. He said he expects inflation to be around 4% for 2021 before coming down to "a bit over" 2% next year and "right at" 2% in 2023.
Several Fed officials have signaled that the central bank is still on track https://www.reuters.com/world/us/feds-clarida-employment-test-begin-bond-taper-all-met-2021-10-12 to begin reducing the pace of its asset purchases as soon as next month, despite lower-than-expected jobs growth in September.
A readout from the Fed's September policy meeting showed a growing number of policymakers are worried that high inflation could persist https://www.reuters.com/business/patient-or-aggressive-fed-policymakers-split-inflation-response-2021-10-13 longer than previously thought.
Harker said policymakers can evaluate interest rates after the tapering is complete, but said he thinks rates will remain steady in the near future if inflation doesn't spiral out of control. "I wouldn’t expect any hikes to interest rates until late next year or early 2023, unless the inflation picture changes dramatically," he said. (Reporting by Jonnelle Marte; editing by Diane Craft)
