Investing.com – Atlanta Fed president Dennis Lockhart admitted on Thursday that weak inflation and consumer spending data had changed his mind and that he would oppose a rate hike by the U.S. central bank at the April meeting.
In an interview with Bloomberg prior to moderating a conversation on the Federal Reserve’s perspective at 14:00GMT, or 10:00AM ET, Lockhart said that recent data had changed his perspective on when to tighten monetary policy.
“Based on what I’ve seen recently, I am not going to be advocating a move in April,” Lockhart confessed in the interview.
The comment was markedly more dovish than last month when the Atlanta Fed president, who does not have the right to vote this year, suggested that economic data justified a rate hike at one of the upcoming meetings, “possible as early as the meeting scheduled for April”.