By Howard Schneider NASHVILLE, Tennessee (Reuters) - Atlanta Federal Reserve President Raphael Bostic said on Monday he would be open to another half-percentage-point interest rate cut at the U.S. central bank's meeting in November if upcoming data show job growth slowing faster than expected.
"A surprise to the weak side ...
. would pull me much further into really needing another dramatic move," Bostic said in an interview with Reuters. Bostic said his baseline outlook was for an "orderly" Fed easing over the next 15 months that would end with the central bank's policy rate in the 3.
00%-3.25% range at the end of 2025 - a level he thinks would have a neutral impact on the economy and which would be 1.75 percentage points below the level set by the Fed at its Sept.
17-18 meeting. At the policy meeting earlier this month, Bostic said he penciled in just a single further quarter-percentage-point rate cut this year beyond the half-percentage-point reduction he and his colleagues approved. But he said his mind is open depending on how fast inflation slows from here and, in particular, what upcoming job reports say about the state of the labor market, beginning with the release on Friday of the U.
S. employment report for September. Data last week showed headline inflation, based on the Fed's preferred personal consumption expenditures price index, slowed to 2.
2% in August, near the central bank's 2% target, and "the big takeaway for me was that the risks of inflation are continuing.