Fed's Fisher: Central bank closer to lift-off after policy meeting

August 1, 2014

Washington (Aug 1)  The Federal Reserve is now closer to raising interest rates after its two-day policy meeting that ended Wednesday, said Dallas Federal Reserve President Richard Fisher on Friday. "I feel, personally, that we are closer to lift off than we were, people felt we were, the market assumed we were, sometime late in 2015. I feel personally we have moved that forward significantly," Fisher said in an interview on CNBC. Lift-off is the term the Fed uses for the first hike in short-term interest rates.Fisher, who has been a sharp critic of the Fed's easy policy stance and is a voting member this year, said he was happy with the changes the Fed made to its policy statement and decided not to dissent. Fisher had said before the Fed meeting that he felt increasingly at odds with his central bank colleagues. But now, after the meeting, he said he feels less so. "At the last meeting, I felt, as I listened to the discussion at the table, that my views were being digested by more and more of the participants," Fisher said. "And that is, the numbers have been better... the employment situation is better, so it would seem to me the date of so-called lift-off has been moved forward." The risk of deflation has "slipped way off the radar scope," he said.

Source: MarketWatch

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