The US Federal Reserve should not start raising interest rates yet, a top Fed official known for his hawkish views on inflation said yesterday . “I’m not yet ready to advocate an exit strategy,” Dallas Federal Reserve Bank president Richard Fisher said after a speech on the Texas economy in Dallas. “We have to stop accommodating first.”

The Fed last month repeated its expectation it will keep benchmark US rates near zero through late 2014, and is still in the midst of a programme to push down longer-term borrowing costs that is expected to end next month.

Fisher has said he does not believe the Fed should extend that programme, known as Operation Twist. Fed chairman Ben Bernanke has held the door open to further easing should the economy take a turn for the worse, but Fisher has argued against it, and did so again. “Job growth is still weak, but no further monetary accommodation is going to fix that,” Fisher said, repeating his view that boosting jobs requires fiscal policy and clarity from legislators, not further monetary policy. – (Reuters)