Fed’s Williams says appropriate again to cut rates ‘over time’, FT reports

(Reuters) -Federal Reserve Bank of New York President John Williams said that it will be appropriate again for the central bank to reduce rates ‘over time,’ after September’s big half percentage point rate cut, in an interview published by the Financial Times on Tuesday.

Last week, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell indicated the bank would likely stick with quarter-percentage-point interest rate cuts and was not “in a hurry” after new data boosted confidence in economic growth and consumer spending.

Williams, who holds a permanent vote on the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee, echoed Powell’s comments, telling the FT he doesn’t see the September move “as the rule of how we act in the future.”

“I personally expect that it will be appropriate again to bring interest rates down over time,” he told the FT.

“Right now, I think monetary policy is well positioned for the outlook, and if you look at the SEP [Summary of Economic Predictions] projections that capture the totality of the views, it’s a very good base case with an economy that’s continuing to grow and inflation coming back to 2 per cent.”

On Friday, government data showed an unexpectedly strong job market, which called into question widespread concerns the labor sector was weakening.

The payrolls report prompted a repricing of near-term Fed rate cuts. Traders are now pricing in an 87% chance of a quarter-point rate cut next month, and have taken out any chance of an outsized half-point cut, according to CME’s FedWatch tool.

(https://bit.ly/47UUMxb)

(Reporting by Shubham Kalia in Bengaluru; Editing by Kim Coghill & Shri Navaratnam)