Fed's Kroszner sees no rate cut despite 'rough patch'

0 Comments | AFP, November, 2007

WASHINGTON (AFP) — "Downbeat" US economic reports expected in the coming months will not justify a new interest rate cut, Federal Reserve governor Randall Kroszner said Friday.

"A sequence of data releases consistent with the rough patch for economic activity that I expect in coming months would not, by themselves, suggest to me that the current stance of monetary policy is inappropriate," Kroszner said in a speech prepared for an Institute of International Finance conference in New York.

The Fed released the text of his speech in Washington.

Kroszner, who said he was speaking on his own behalf and not the central bank's, noted a run-up in oil prices and a weakening of the dollar since the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) slashed its base federal funds...