Fed Needs More Easing Until Economy Grows: Chicago Fed President Charles Evans

08-30-2011 • CNBC.com

The Federal Reserve may need to be even more aggressive in its easing policies than it has been so far unless the economy shows significant improvement, Chicago Fed President Charles Evans told CNBC. Source: chicagofed.org Chicago Federal Reserve President Charles Evans A jobless rate at 9.1 percent is "consistent with recession" while inflation is far from a worry, Evans said while defending both the central bank's previous actions to stimulate conditions and his view that even more action along the lines of quantitative easing will be needed. In his view, QE needs to stay in place until unemployment plunges to 7 percent or if inflation gets past 3 percent. Core inflation, which strips out food and transportation, is about 1.6 percent, though the number is 3.2 percent including the more volatile measures. "Strong accommodation needs to be in place for a substantial period of time," he said. "If we could sort of make everybody understand that this is going to be in place for a longer period of time, we could knock out some of that restraint that comes about when people talk about premature tightening."