However, Thomas Hoenig, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, said in separate remarks Wednesday that the Fed needs to start boosting rates "soon."
"I would view a move to 1 percent as simply a continuation of our strategy to remove measures that were originally implemented in response to the intensification of the financial crisis that erupted in the fall of 2008," said Hoenig in a speech delivered in Sante Fe, New Mexico.
"A federal funds rate of 1 percent would still represent highly accommodative policy," he said. "From this point, further adjustment of the federal funds rate would depend on how economic and financial conditions develop."