Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President and CEO Raphael W. Bostic speaks at a European Financial Forum event in Dublin, Ireland, Feb.
Clodagh Kilcoyne | Reuters
Raphael Bostic, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, appeared Sunday morning on CBS’ “Face The Nation” with a continued commitment to the 2% inflation target and a cautiously optimistic outlook on the path forward. achieve it.
The country’s central bank raised the target federal funds rate by 75 basis points to between 3 and 3 1/4 on Wednesday. Bostic believes the Federal Reserve can meet its 2% inflation target without seriously hurting the economy.
“I think we’re going to do everything we can at the Federal Reserve to avoid deep, deep pain.” Bostic said “Face the Nation”.
The most recent report recorded inflation of 8.3% over the past year. The Fed aims to temper demand in the economy so prices can stabilize, but some fear the tight policies could trigger further economic turbulence.
Bostic acknowledged that there will likely be job losses as a result of the Fed’s actions. However, compared to earlier Fed tightening, Bostic believes “there’s a very good chance that if we have job losses it will be less than what we’ve seen in other situations,” he said. he said on “Face the Nation”.
Bostic sees “positive momentum” in the economy despite two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth, a sign used by some to identify a recession.
“We’re still creating a lot of jobs on a monthly basis. And so I actually think the economy has some capacity to absorb our actions,” Bostic said, noting “tremendous job growth” in the city. birthplace of his bank, Atlanta. “I expect us to move forward and start to get inflation under control more.”