Fed officials push back on rapid interest rate hikes

By STAN CHOE and CHRISTOPHER RUGABER
AP Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — The Federal Reserve should start raising interest rates next month to help rein in too-high inflation, New York Fed President John Williams said Friday. But he added that the rate hikes may not have to begin with as big a bang as some have suggested. With inflation at its hottest level in a generation, the widespread expectation has been for the Fed to soon raise rates off their record low of nearly zero, where they’ve been through the pandemic. The only question has been how big and how quickly it will move, because too much aggression could choke the economy and too little could let inflation spiral.