(Reuters) – Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Raphael Bostic believes the Fed will pull back on its asset-buying campaign this year though he does not expect a decision in this month’s central bank meeting, he told the Wall Street Journal.
“As strong as the data was coming in the early part of the summer, I was really very much leaning into advocating for an earlier start than what many may have expected” on the bond buying taper, Bostic told WSJ in an interview published on Thursday.
“The weaker data that we’ve seen more recently suggests to me that maybe there’s a chance for some play on this, but I still think that sometime this year is going to be appropriate (to slow the asset buying).”
Bostic, who does not currently hold a vote on the Federal Open Market Committee, does not expect there to be any call to pull back on asset buying at the Sept. 21-22 FOMC meeting, according to the report.
(Reporting by Aakriti Bhalla in Bengaluru; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)
