Fed’s Bullard calls for a 75bp hike in July

St. Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard prefers to lift interest rates by 75 basis points at the central bank’s next meeting later in June. Bullard told the Japanese news service Nikkei in an interview released on Thursday that he does not back a larger increase for now.

“So far, we’ve framed this mostly as 50 versus 75 at this meeting,” Bullard said. “I think 75 has a lot of virtue to it, because the long-run neutral that the committee has, according to the Summary of Economic Projections, is actually about 2.5%.”

Asked if the Fed’s policy rate, currently in a range of 1.5-1.75%, could exceed 4% by year-end, Bullard said: “I suppose it’s possible,” but cautioned that would require data on inflation to continue coming in in “an adverse way.”

The US dollar resumed its move higher on Thursday, charting new 24-year highs in the DXY index that tracks the greenback against six counterparts up more than 13% this year. It was last up 0.64% on the day at 108.710.