Chicago Federal Reserve Bank President Evans said Monday that it was time for the Federal Reserve to suspend tightening and remain cautious, and that he did not expect to raise interest rates until the second half of next year.
Evans spoke at the Credit Suisse Investment Conference in Hong Kong. He was one of the first policy makers to comment on the Fed's interest rate decision last Wednesday. The Fed abandoned its plan to raise interest rates further in 2019, suggesting an end to policy tightening.
Evans'position has softened a bit since a few months ago. He has the right to vote on interest rate decisions this year. Current monetary policy is neither loose nor restrictive, he said.
In January, he said the Fed could raise interest rates three times in 2019 if the U.S. economy remained fairly strong.
On Monday, the yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury bond fell further, lower than the yield on the three-month U.S. Treasury bond, which in the past tended to indicate recession risk.
The yield curve was upside down for the first time since mid-2007 on Friday.
Evans called the inversion of the yield curve "very shallow".
"We need to take into account the continued decline in long-term interest rates," Evans said.
"Some of these structural problems are related to declining trend growth rates and declining real interest rates," he said. "I think that in such an environment, it may be natural for the yield curve to be flatter than in the past."
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