Minneapolis Fed president urges no US rate increases this year

London

THE Federal Reserve should leave short-term borrowing costs near zero for a seventh year in a row, a top Fed official says, citing sliding US inflation and still-high unemployment.

The Fed "can best achieve its macroeconomic objectives by not raising the fed funds rate target this year," Minneapolis Fed president Narayana Kocherlakota said on Thursday. "Raising the target range for the fed funds rate in 2015 would only further retard the pace of the slow recovery in inflation."