Aug 5 - The U.S. economic recovery is progressing quickly, the labor market is improving and it may be possible for the Federal Reserve to end its accommodative monetary policy sooner than some expect, Fed Governor Christopher Waller said on Thursday.
My outlook is that the economy is going to recover, Waller said during a virtual event organized by the American Enterprise Institute think tank. I believe that accommodative monetary policy will be able to pull back on it sooner than other countries think.
Waller said he has high hopes for the September jobs report released on Friday and August report which will be released next month. He returned his opinion that it is possible that the U.S. labor market will have recovered about 85% of the jobs lost during the COVID -19 Pandemic by September after accounting for close to 2 million people who retired during the public health crisis.
Waller announced on Monday that the Fed could start to enact its support for economy by October if the next two monthly jobs reports each show an increase of 800,000 to 1 million, as he expects. He said then that the Fed should go quickly and go early when reducing its asset purchases from the current rate of $120 billion a month so policymakers could be in a position to raise rates in 2022 if needed.