Chicago Federal Reserve Bank President Charles Evans on Friday said he wanted the US central bank to keep interest-rate increases on hold until after March to allow inflation a chance to rise and even exceed the Fed's 2-percent target.
"My own preference would be to wait a little bit longer," Evans said in a CNBC interview. "We could go midyear and all of a sudden see, 'wow, inflation continues to move up towards 2 percent, I'm much more confident' and we continue an upward gradual adjustment of the funds rate."
The Fed is widely expected to raise rates later this month, and two more times before the end of the year. Traders stuck to those expectations after a government report early Friday showed job gains surged in February but average hourly wages rose just four cents, slower than expected.
Evans for his part said the February jobs report was "good news" in that it showed more people entering the labor force, with the participation rate rising to a five-month high of 63 percent. But, Evans added, with such "strong" hiring and an unemployment rate of 4.1 percent, below what the Fed thinks is sustainable in the long run, "I would have liked a stronger wage number."
Fiscal stimulus from the Trump administration's $1.5 trillion tax overhaul and the latest deficit-fueled budget could propel the US economy to 3 percent growth this year, Evans said, but "I continue to be nervous that inflation is under-running 2 percent."
If the Fed waits until midyear to raise rates, Evans said, it could still deliver two to four rate hikes this year and be a "gradual" pace of rate hikes as the Fed has promised.
"I think we really have the ability to be cautious," he said.
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