US interest rate decision in October a close call, says Fed's SF head

Washington

THE US economy has reached at least one measure of full employment and the decision to keep interest rates near zero in October was a close one, said John Williams, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.

"To my mind, the decision was a close call, in part reflecting the crosscurrents we're navigating," he said in the text of a speech delivered on Saturday in Tempe, Arizona. "On one hand, the US economy continues to grow and is closing in on full employment. On the other, in large part due to developments abroad, inflation has remained lower than we'd like."