The likelihood that inflation numbers are going to remain stubbornly high for a while could mean more interest rate increases, former St. Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard said Thursday.
In a CNBC interview, the the current dean of the Mitchell E. Daniels Jr. School of Business at Purdue University raised the prospect of more policy tightening as core inflation is stuck around 4%.
"That's raising the risk that the Fed will have to follow through on its promise rate increase sometime in the next couple of meetings, and there's some risk that they'd have to go a little bit higher even from there," Bullard told CNBC's Steve Liesman.
Inflation numbers "have got to come down into the 3% range, and eventually the 2% range, and if that is not happening and they hang up too high, the Fed may have to do more," he said.
Persons:
James Bullard, Mitchell, Daniels, Bullard, CNBC's Steve Liesman, — Jeff Cox
Organizations:
Louis Federal Reserve, CNBC, School of Business, Purdue University
Locations:
St