WASHINGTON, Nov 9 (Reuters) – Minneapolis Federal Reserve President Neel Kashkari said he was not concerned about a potential clash between the Fed and President-elect Donald Trump because both major U.S. political parties want inflation lower.
“I am not concerned about the dynamics in Washington,” following Tuesday’s election of Trump, Kashkari said in an interview on Fox News. “Both sides of the aisle want us to keep the economy strong and get inflation down.”
“We have made a lot of progress and we want to get the job done,” said Kashkari, the first Fed policymaker to speak publicly following the central bank’s decision last week to cut the benchmark interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point to a range from 4.5% to 4.75%.
Kashkari did not express a view on further rate reductions as soon as the Fed’s December meeting, but noted that recent strong growth and productivity gains might point to the need for higher interest rates than otherwise.
“I have been surprised at how resilient the economy has been,” Kashkari said. “If that is sustained and we are in a structurally more productive economy going forward, that tells me we wouldn’t end up cutting as far.”
