Breaking: Fed’s Brainard suggests slower pace of rate hikes will come ‘soon’

Federal Reserve Vice Chair Lael Brainard indicated Monday that the central bank could soon slow the pace of its interest rate increases.

With markets expecting a likely step down in December from the Fed’s rapid pace of rate increases this year, Brainard confirmed that a slowdown if not a stop is looming.

“I think it will probably be appropriate soon to move to a slower pace of rate increases,” she added.

That doesn’t mean the Fed will stop raising rates, but it at least will come off a pace that has seen four consecutive 0.75 percentage point increases, an unprecedented pace since the central bank started using short-term rates to set monetary policy in 1990.

“I think what’s really important to emphasize is we’ve done a lot but we have additional work to do both on raising rates and sustaining restraint to bring inflation down to 2% over time,” Brainard said.