Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago President Charles Evans said in a CNBC interview he prefers the Fed hold off on a rate hike when its monetary policy committee meets March 20-21.
Most market observers expect the Federal Open Market Committee will announce a rate hike in its next meeting. But Evans, who is not a voting member this year, said the Fed should avoid hiking rates until it sees strong evidence that inflation is rising toward its 2% goal. Evans dissented in December 2017 on the FOMC's third rate hike of 2017 over those same inflation concerns.
He has said the Fed should wait until the middle of 2018 for its next rate hike if inflation is strengthening and shaking off some factors that held it down early in 2017.
One sign that inflation remains weak, he said, is the jobs report released earlier March 9 showing weaker-than-expected wage growth. Average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose by 4 cents to $26.75 and by 68 cents over the year. The 2.6% year-over-year rise in wage growth was below expectations and down from the revised 2.8% increase in January.
Overall, though, Evans told CNBC the headline number showing the U.S. added 313,000 jobs in February was an encouraging sign of robust economic growth.
