Investing.com -- Philadelphia Federal Reserve President Patrick Harker, who is set to retire at the end of June, has stated that interest rate cuts could be a possibility this year, given the current economic uncertainty. Harker discussed his concerns about the quality of economic data used by policymakers in a recent interview.
Harker mentioned that the option to ease monetary policy is always on the table. He stated, "If the signals are such that inflation doesn’t look like it’s moving rapidly north, but unemployment does then, yeah, I could definitely see making one or more cuts this year, but it’s hard to say at this point."
In addition to his thoughts on monetary policy, Harker, who previously led the University of Delaware, expressed concerns about the reliability of the data used by policymakers. He indicated that the quality of data, including that produced by the government, is not improving. Harker stated, "It’s not just inflation data but a whole host of data, so we’re increasingly flying blind, or at least half blind."
Harker has been leading the Philadelphia Fed since 2015 and his tenure is coming to an end this month. The Federal Reserve is scheduled to meet on June 17-18, and it is widely anticipated that the interest rate target will remain steady at between 4.25% and 4.5%.