Fed’s Bostic: could start normalizing interest rates next summer

(Reuters) – Atlanta Federal Reserve President Raphael Bostic on Thursday said he believes the Fed could start raising interest rates in the middle of next year, when the U.S. economy will have regained the vibrant labor market it had before the pandemic hit.

“Right now, our projections suggest that by the summertime of next year, the number of jobs that we have in the economy will be pretty much where we were pre-pandemic,” Bostic said in an interview with NPR’s Marketplace. “And at that point, I think it’s appropriate for us to try to normalize our interest rate policy.”

(Reporting by Ann Saphir; Editing by Chris Reese)