Investing.com - Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank President Patrick Harker said Monday that two to three rate hikes are possible this year if the economy continues to grow as projected.
"Although I cannot give you a definitive path for how policy will evolve, I can easily see the possibility of two or three rate hikes over the remainder of the year," Harker said in prepared remarks, adding that growth in the second half of the year should recover.
"I believe that wage pressures are building and will continue to do so as the labor market moves beyond full employment."
He said the growth outlook "is subject to fairly wide confidence bands" and does "not necessarily imply an overly aggressive path for policy," but said if all goes along expected lines "we can meaningfully move away from the zero lower bound and that our reaction to incoming data can return to a more historical pattern."