(Reuters) -Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank President Neel Kashkari on Monday again said he expects “modest” interest rate cuts over the next several quarters, though a sharp deterioration of labor markets could move him to advocate for faster cuts. “If we saw a weakening, like real evidence that the labor market is weakening quickly, then that would tell me, as one policymaker, ‘Hey, maybe we ought to bring down our interest rate more quickly than I currently expect,'” Kashkari said in a town hall at the Chippewa Falls Area Chamber of Commerce.
Kashkari said he currently believes rates are still putting the brakes on the economy.
But he also said the economy’s strength while the Fed was hiking rates and since it eased rates last month signal to him that the eventual resting point for the policy rate — what is known as the neutral rate, where borrowing costs neither slow nor stimulate growth — may be higher than it was in the past.
“We want to keep the labor market strong and we want to get inflation back down to our 2% target,” Kashkari said, and the appropriate path of interest rates will “depend on the data.”
The Fed at its next meeting, on Nov. 6-7, is widely expected to cut another 25 basis points from the policy rate, currently in the 4.75%-5.00% range.
