Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Richard Fisher said Thursday the U.S. economy is getting better and repeated his view that further quantitative easing, also known as QE3, was not needed from the central bank.
Fisher, who along with Kansas City Fed President Thomas Hoenig is often at odds with official central bank policy, said “The tone is a lot better. It’s not brilliant; we don’t have enough new hiring taking place, [but the number are] definitely moving in the right direction,” Fisher told CNBC television.
“Given the improvement in the data that we’ve seen, things are getting better, not worse. I don’t see any need personally for QE3 here,” the possibility of which he recently called “a Wall Street fantasy” that won’t happen.
Indeed, private sector investors had expected fed action, with PIMCO CEO Mohamed El-Erian saying earlier this month that “my gut says we are likely to see [QE3], but the question is when and how big.”
The Fed has held overnight interest rates at or near zero since December 2008 and has indicated it will continue to do so at least until 2014 in order to stir economic growth.