(Reuters) – Longer-term borrowing costs are rising because of increased economic optimism and some expectations of rising inflation, Richmond Federal Reserve Bank President Thomas Barkin said on Friday, but the Fed won’t be raising short-term interest rates until the economy meets clear benchmarks.
“I expect to start raising rates when we meet the conditions that we’ve talked about,” Barkin said on CNBC. The Fed has promised not to raise rates until the economy has reached full employment and inflation has not only hit the Fed’s 2% goal but is on track to exceed that goal for some time. “I don’t have a sense that there’s a timing, there’s a year, there’s a month, there’s a quarter that I’m thinking about,” he said.
(Reporting by Ann Saphir; Editing by Leslie Adler)
