Atlanta Fed President: "Time for Rate Cuts Has Come... Confidence Needed"

Raphael Bostic, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, said that "it may be time to cut interest rates," but added that additional data is needed to confirm a rate cut next month.

According to Bloomberg on the 28th (local time), President Bostic made these remarks at an event hosted by the Georgia Stanford Club and the Stanford Black Alumni Association of Atlanta, stating, "I do not want to be in a situation where we have to raise rates again after cutting them."

Raphael Bostic, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta
[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

He added, "If we make a mistake in one direction, we need to wait longer to ensure that it does not happen repeatedly."

President Bostic said that inflation and employment-related indicators must be checked before cutting rates. The market is awaiting the release of the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) data on the 30th and the employment report on the 8th ahead of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting scheduled for September 17-18.

Earlier, Jerome Powell, Chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed), stated at the Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium on the 23rd that inflation is slowing and the labor market is cooling, saying, "The time has come to adjust policy." This has increased expectations that the Fed will cut rates at the September FOMC meeting. According to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) FedWatch, the federal funds futures market fully prices in a rate cut of at least 0.25 percentage points by the Fed in September. The probability of a 0.25 percentage point rate cut next month is 65.5%, while the chance of a 0.5 percentage point 'big cut' is 34.5%.

President Bostic has consistently expected the Fed to cut rates only once in the fourth quarter this year. However, according to foreign media, he has recently signaled that a rate cut could come slightly earlier. President Bostic has voting rights at the September FOMC meeting.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.