Fed’s Bullard Calls for Higher Rates as Balance Sheet Jumps $100 Billion, Depositors Pull Funds From Banks

The Federal Reserve must keep raising interest rates in its inflation fight as the U.S. banking turmoil will subside, says St. Louis Fed Bank President James Bullard.
Speaking to the Greater St. Louis Inc. community organization on Friday, Bullard explained that the central bank must lift the benchmark fed funds rate (FFR) higher than previously anticipated, citing prospects for stickier and stubborn inflation and stronger-than-expected economic growth.
Bullard estimated that the institution should increase the policy rate to 5.625 percent, adding that the sooner policymakers bring the FFR to this level, the better it will be for the United States.
Earlier this week, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) pulled the trigger on a quarter-point rate hike, lifting the FFR to a target range of 4.75 percent and 5.00 percent. The Fed is penciling in one more rate increase this year, although Fed Chair Jerome Powell told reporters at the post-FOMC news conference that the central bank would be ready to raise rates if conditions called for additional tightening….

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