Chicago Fed President Charles Evans is open to a 50-basis-point rate hike at the Federal Open Market Committee's May meeting, he said during a moderated Q&A hosted by the Peterson Institute for International Economics. If the Federal Reserve front-loads its rate hiking cycle with a 50-basis point hike in May followed by another 50 bps increase at the next meeting and 25 bps rate hikes at each of the four remaining 2022 FOMC meetings, the Fed will get to 2.25%-2.5% by the end of the year, he said. At that point, the policy rate would be neutral to slightly restrictive, Evans added. "We'll probably get to to a slightly restrictive stance." Still, he urges the policymakers to carefully consider the incoming data as they raise rates. "It's not going to make a heck of a lot of difference if you get there" in December or March, Evans said. When asked
