Interest rate comment from Chicago Fed President Goolsbee

The U.S. economy is on track for 2% inflation, Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee said Thursday, adding to his confidence that the time to cut interest rates is near, as the U.S. economy remains on track to reach 2% inflation after a surge earlier this year. “My view is that the path to 2% is there,” Goolsbee told reporters in a group interview at the bank. The government report released earlier Thursday showing that consumer prices unexpectedly fell in June from May was “excellent” news, Goolsbee said, and that stronger-than-expected inflation readings in January, along with data from May, were merely “a bump in the road” rather than a reversal of progress. Goolsbee declined to say whether the Fed would push for a rate cut when it next meets to decide policy on July 30-31.