Further rate rises in US justified, possibly in April, Fed´s Lacker says

Additional rate hikes from the US Federal Reserve should be expected in 2016, possibly as soon as April, a top US central bank official said.

“In my opinion, there is sufficient momentum evidenced by the economic data to justify a further step at one of the coming meetings, possibly as early as the meeting scheduled for end of April,” Dennis Lockhart, the president of the Federal Reserve bank of Atlanta, said in prepared remarks for a speech to be delivered in Savannah, Georgia.

The central bank official said policy-makers would evaluate whether the economy´s performance, specifically citing the Main Street, remained on track to meet its mandate for full-employment and price stability, while taking into account all the pertinent risks and uncertainties.

He added that at the Fed´s 15-16 March meeting he had considered that a "patient" approach made sense.

“The environment for policy setting has changed enough since mid-December to justify exercising some patience as regards the next rate increase. The Committee will be monitoring global and financial developments along with evaluating incoming data.”

Lockhart predicted US gross domestic product would expand by between 2.0% and 2.5% in 2016.

Slack remained in the labour market but the Fed was getting closer to full employment, he said, going on to add he was optimistic on achieving the 2.0% medium-term inflation target.

Consumer activity had picked up enough since the fourth quarter to support the view that overall domestic demand was expanding a healthy enough pace.