Richmond Fed Chairman Thomas Barkin said on Tuesday that Fed policymakers "have time" to determine whether they can maintain interest rate stability or need to further raise interest rates to achieve the 2% target set by policymakers.

I still hope to believe that demand is stabilizing and that any weakness will have an impact on inflation, "Barkin said in a speech at the Real Estate Roundtable held in Washington on Tuesday

He said that although the path to inflation is "not yet clear", "we have time to see if we have done enough or if there is more work to be done".

Balkin pointed out that the overall annual inflation rate in September has slowed from its peak of 9.1% in June last year to 3.7%. He said, "We have not yet reached the target, but we are moving in the right direction." Balkin, who did not vote on interest rate decisions this year, said he supports the Federal Open Market Committee's decision to abandon interest rate hikes at its September meeting so that officials can gather more information, Evaluate the effectiveness of cumulative tightening policies to date.

Since March 2022, Federal Reserve officials have raised interest rates by more than 5 percentage points. After the recent rise in bond yields has tightened the financial environment, they have expressed a tendency to maintain policy stability for the second consecutive time next month.

However, due to the continuous display of the resilience of the US economy in data such as retail sales and factory output released earlier on Tuesday, the possibility of interest rate hikes has not disappeared.

The minutes of the latest meeting of Federal Reserve officials show that they have seen some potential risks that could reignite inflation, including food price shocks and a strengthening real estate market. In addition, the ground war between Israel and Hamas may also continue to drive up energy prices, thereby fueling price increases.

We are walking on a delicate boundary, and if we correct insufficiently, inflation will rise again. If we correct excessively, it will cause unnecessary damage to the economy, "Balkin said. Even the best policies can be influenced by external events, as recent Middle East news has reminded us

After his speech, Balkin told reporters that if inflation starts to rise and demand remains consistently strong, "then you would say that in this environment, you would want to do more by raising interest rates. He said, "Long term interest rates have already risen, which will definitely tighten financial conditions... The challenge of relying on (long-term) interest rates is that they may fluctuate." He also said, "I know very little about the long end of the yield curve, so I try not to over index it. Considering what is happening globally, I don't know what the interest rate will be in three weeks

Ba Jin said that the current challenge is to track official data on economic growth, retail sales, employment growth, and even the latest inflation readings, which indicate that the economic strength is much stronger than what he heard when talking to companies in the region. He said, "It's difficult to compare the two

When asked if this means he tends to maintain interest rates in the current 5.25% -5.50% range at the upcoming Federal Reserve meeting from October 31 to November 1, he said, "We will make a decision at the meeting. We will continue to have a wonderful debate as usual

In the forecast submitted in September, 12 out of 19 officials stated that they expected to raise interest rates again before the end of the year. The futures market believes that the possibility of a 25 basis point rate hike at the November meeting is less than 15%, but the possibility of a rate hike at the January meeting next year is more than 50%.