October 24, 2022: -Philadelphia Federal Reserve President Patrick Harker said higher interest rates have little to keep checking the inflation, so more increases will be needed.

“We are going to keep increasing rates for a while,” the central bank official stated in remarks for a speech in New Jersey. “Given our frankly disappointing progress on curtailing inflation, I anticipate we will be well above 4% by the year-end.”

The latter comment was about the fed funds rate currently targeted at between 3%-3.25%.

Markets majorly anticipate the Fed to confirm a fourth consecutive 0.75 percentage point interest rate increase in November, after another in December. It is anticipated that the Federal Open Market Committee, of that Harker, is a non-voting person this year, will raise rates slightly in 2023 before it settles in a range of around 4.5%-4.75%.

Harker indicated that those higher rates would likely stay in place for an extended period.

“Sometime next year, we are going to pause the hiking rates. At that point, let us hold at a restrictive rate for a while to keep monetary policy doing its work,” he stated. “It will take some time for the higher cost of capital to work its way through the economy. We can tighten more based on the data if we have to.”

Inflation is currently running at its highest level in over 40 years.

According to the Fed’s preferred meter, headline personal consumption expenditures inflation is at a 6.2% annual rate. The core excludes food and energy prices, which is at 4.9%, well above the central bank’s 2% target.

“Inflation will decrease, but it will take some time to reach our target,” Harker said.