Feds Mester backs 50 bps rate hikes, sees no sustained downturn

　　div classBodysc17zpet90 cdBBJodivpReuters – Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank President Loretta Mester on Tuesday said she backs halfpoint interest rate increases at the next couple Fed meetings and expects theyll need to go above 2.5 to bring high inflation down.p

　　p“It may very well be that the unemployment rate will have to move up a little bit, we may get another quarter of negative or slow growth, but that‘s going to have to happen if we want to get inflation down,” Mester told Yahoo Finance. “I don’t think what are planning to to with monetary policy, at least in my base case, is going to push the economy into a downturn thats sort of a sustained downturn.”pdivdivdiv classBodysc17zpet90 cdBBJodiv

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　　pp Reporting by Ann Saphirp

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