US Fed rate hike probably appropriate in coming months, Yellen says

In an interview with profesor Gregory Mankiw at Harvard University, Yellen said it was "appropriate for the Fed to gradually and cautiously increase our overnight interest rate over time,” and then went on to add “and probably in the coming months such a move would be appropriate.”

While she expected inflation to move back towards the central bank´s 2% target she noted there had not been much improvement in wage growth nor in the number of part-time workers who said they still wanted to work full-time.

Nonetheless, the unemployment rate was still close to the Fed´s mandated goal.

Yellen also decried the rate of growth in productivity as "miserable".

“That’s a serious and negative development.”

As of 19:54 BST cable was down by 0.34% to 1.4619 and dollar/yen higher by 0.36% to 110.14.