Fed’s Mester Says Gradual Rate Increases Still Best Path

Mester is a voting member of the interest-rate setting Federal Open Market Committee and has long supported raising rates

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Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President Loretta Mester said the economy’s solid performance justifies further gradual interest-rate increases.

“With the economy growing above trend, with the unemployment rate very low and with inflation at 2%, it’s pretty clear, a very compelling case for what the Fed has to do” with monetary policy, and that is to move it slowly higher, Ms. Mester told CNBC on the sidelines of the Kansas City Fed’s annual research conference in Jackson Hole, Wyo.

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