Fed’s Williams: Rate Increase in 2015 a “reasonable guess”

San Francisco Federal Reserve President John Williams said hiking the benchmark interest rate in the summer of 2015 is a “reasonable guess” based on the current economic progress, noting a broad improvement the labor market.

“When we actually start to raise rates will depend on how the economy is doing…. we really want to be data dependent,” Williams told CNBC at the annual Jackson Hole symposium in Wyoming on Thursday.  With wage growth currently at 2 percent, Williams said he expects nominal wages to pick up as inflation and productivity rise.

“To my mind, a normal rate of wage growth would be something like 3 [or] 3.5 percent,” he said. “That would be consistent with the 2 percent inflation goal and the productivity growth we’re seeing.”

CNBC

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