"It would be my view that if the economy unfolds between now and our September meeting ... if it unfolds the way I expect, I would be in favor of announcing a plan at the September meeting and beginning tapering in October," Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Robert Kaplan said in an interview with CNBC.
"The reason I'm saying we ought to begin the tapering soon is I think these purchases are very well equipped to stimulate demand. But we don't have a demand problem in the economy," Kaplan said, adding tapering soon would give the Fed more flexibility to be patient on raising interest rates.
"What I don't want to do is keeping running at this speed for too long and then we're going to have to take more aggressive action down the road," he said.
Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank President Esther George also said earlier Wednesday that it's time to dial back the central bank's asset purchases as U.S. economic growth is likely to remain robust.
"With the recovery underway, a transition from extraordinary monetary policy accommodation to more neutral settings must follow," George said.
The Fed has pledged to keep its benchmark interest rate unchanged at the record-low level of near zero, while continuing its asset purchase program at least at the current pace of 120 billion U.S. dollars per month until "substantial further progress" has been made on employment and inflation.
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