Chicago Fed President Charles Evans said today’s CPI data was the first “positive” reading since Fed started tightening. Yet, inflation is still “unacceptably” high”. He expects Fed to continue to raise interest rate to 3.25-3.50% by year end, and to 3.75-4.00 by the end of next year.

Evans was optimistic that the economy will “continue to grow” in H2. “”I’m not looking for the economy to turn down in a significant fashion any time soon,” he added. He expected growth to be 1.5-2.0% next year.

St. Louis Fed President James Bullard said in an MNI interview, “we may see some relief in the headline CPI tomorrow but the reason we tend to track core PCE inflation is exactly because we ignore the energy price movement on the way up but also on the way down.”

“I would like to see improvements across a range of indicators of inflation, not just one measure ticking down a little bit but clear and convincing evidence,” he said, adding that it’s going to be “much harder” to get core factors to turn around.

Bullard still wants to get interest rates to 3.75-4.00% range by the end of the year. “I think the destination is a little bit higher than what I would have thought even a couple months ago because inflation has continued to broaden out and doesn’t look like it’s turning the corner at least based on the evidence we have today… I think it’s too early to make the claim that inflation has peaked.”

San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly said in a CBS New interview, “if you’re out in the economy, you don’t feel like you’re in a recession. That’s the bottom line. The most important risk out there is inflation. And I think the job market just confirms that.”

She added that a 50bps hike in September is still “absolutely” appropriate. “And we need to be data dependent. It could. We need to leave our minds open. We have two more inflation reports coming out, another jobs report. We continue to collect all the information from the context we talk to you to see how this is working its way through the economy,” She said.

Full transcript of the interview here.

Fed Governor Michelle Bowman sad in a speech over the weekend, she supported Fed’s 75bps rate hike in July, as well as the view that “ongoing increases” would be appropriate at “coming meetings”.

“My view is that similarly-sized increases should be on the table until we see inflation declining in a consistent, meaningful, and lasting way,” she added.

Bowman saw a “significant risk of higher inflation into next year for food, housing, fuel, and vehicles.” And, the supply problems seem “likely to persist”. But job market was tight with unemployment rate finally returning to the pre-pandemic level of 3.5%. Her base case is for a pickup in growth during H2, and for moderate growth in 2023.

Full speech here.