Way back in August 2013, at a little old symposium held at Jackson Hole, two central bankers warned the Federal Reserve of 'tapering' too soon: one was India's Raghuram Rajan, the other was Mexico's Agustin Carstens.
But, what are they saying this time around, with the Federal Reserve actively debating the timing of the 'lift-off from zero' rate hike?
Raghuram Rajan, now the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, said during the week:
- "It is not the role of the central bank to elevate sentiments unduly, to deliver booster shots to the stock market so that it can soar for a while, only to collapse when reality hits"
What of the other guy, Mexican central bank Governor Agustin Carstens? He's been speaking on the sidelines at Jackson Hole this week, where he said that as a signal the US economy is strong a Fed rate hike would be good news for Mexico (Mexico's economic growth is closely tied to that of the US).
I don't want to read too much into the comments, and neither of them mentioned dates, but it does sound like both of them are not opposed to a US rate hike.
On Friday I posted on other central banker comments, also not opposing a Fed hike.
OK ... I better add this, 'cause it would be remiss not to mention that not all central bankers support a hike (and I'm not just talking about Narayana Kocherlakota) ... during the week the PBOC said "No, oh please God, NO!" opposed a Fed rate hike. (ps. At the time the opposition was attributed to an unnamed People's Bank of China official, but apparently it was Yao Yudong, head of the central bank's Research Institute of Finance and Banking.)
