US Fed official sees no accelerating of inflation in 2005

President of US Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis Gary Stern said on Friday that he expects solid growth in 2005 without any worries of an outsized rise in inflation.

"I believe inflation will continue to remain subdued, it will be modest in the year ahead," Stern said during a speech on general economic issues in Marquette, Michigan.

Stern said that he has met with many business leaders and "I'm not hearing when I talk to business people that there are a lot of additional price increases coming along."

And as long as inflation remains low, Stern said, the Us Federal Reserve (Fed) can continue to make monetary policy less accommodative, although he steered clear of commenting on the pace or extent of future interest-rate hikes.

"We've been talking about getting policy back to a neutral stance.... It's been pretty accommodating for a while," Stern said.

The US Fed has increased the short-term interest rates for five times since the end of last June to curb the increase of US inflation.

Source: Xinhua