Philadelphia Fed President Patrick Harker said he would be “supportive of a 25 basis point increase in March.” But he’s “a little less convinced of” a 50 bps hike right now. He added, “if inflation stays where it is now, and continues to start to come down, I don’t see a 50 basis point increase.”
“Right now, I think four 25 basis point increases this year is appropriate,” Harker said. “But there’s a lot of risk here,” including the risk that inflation is worse than expected, or that it eases faster than Fed officials expect.