(Bloomberg) — Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco President John Williams played down a "low" reading on second-quarter U.S. growth and said the economy could still warrant as many as two interest-rate increases this year — or none.
"There's definitely a data stream that could come through in the next couple of months that I think would be supportive of two rate increases," Williams told reporters Friday after speaking in Cambridge, Massachusetts. "There's data that we could get that wouldn't be supportive of that — it could be one, maybe, or none. Time will tell."
Williams was the first Fed official to speak publicly since policy makers held interest rates steady on Wednesday for the fifth straight time. The Fed was slightly more upbeat about the U.S. economy in a statement released after its two-day meeting, taking a step toward an increase later this year without signaling how soon a move might come.
Chair Janet Yellen and her colleagues have been watching for evidence of how headwinds from abroad, including fallout over Britain's decision to leave the European Union, will affect U.S. hiring and progress in lifting inflation toward their goal of 2 percent.
Data released earlier on Friday by the U.S. Commerce Department showed the economy expanded less than forecast in the second quarter, while the Fed's preferred gauge of price pressures excluding food and energy prices rose 1.7 percent annualized.
"The GDP number for the second quarter was low," said Williams, who isn't a voting member of the policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee this year. "Final sales actually looked pretty good," though, and "a lot of the second-quarter weakness, part of it was really inventory swings." He also said that the inflation data "was more or less what I had been expecting," while the effects on the U.S. economy from the Brexit vote appeared to be "very modest."
