Dudley says Fed should 'soon' be ready to raise rates

[NEW YORK] The Federal Reserve should "soon" be ready to raise interest rates as US central bankers grow confident that low inflation will rebound and that employment remains stable, William Dudley, the influential head of the New York Fed, said on Friday.

"We hope that relatively soon we will become reasonably confident that inflation will return to our 2 per cent objective," he said at Hofstra University. Mr Dudley said it was"very logical" to expect that the Fed's inflation and employment conditions would be met "soon," allowing policymakers to "start thinking about raising the short-term interest rates."

Asked about last week's attacks in Paris, Mr Dudley said it was difficult to predict the economic fallout from that and from the broader situation in the war-plagued Middle East.

REUTERS