DALLAS (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Reserve should not start raising interest rates yet, a top Fed official known for his hawkish views on inflation said on Tuesday.
"I'm not yet ready to advocate an exit strategy," Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Richard Fisher told reporters after a speech on the Texas economy in Dallas. "We have to stop accommodating first."
The Fed last month repeated its expectation that it will keep benchmark U.S. rates near zero through late 2014, and is still in the midst of a program to push down longer-term borrowing costs that is expected to end next month.
Fisher, who does not have a vote this year on the Fed's policy-setting panel, has said he does not believe the Fed should extend that program, 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 repeatedly argued against it, and did so again on Tuesday.
"Job growth is still weak, but no further monetary accommodation is going to fix that," Fisher said, repeating his long-held view that boosting jobs requires fiscal policy and clarity from legislators, not further monetary policy.
"Our fiscal authorities have to get their act together," he said.
The U.S. unemployment rate slipped to 8.1 percent in April, as more people gave up looking for work. Hiring slowed for a third month in a sign that the recovery may have lost some of its momentum.
(Reporting by Erwin Seba in Dallas; Writing by Ann Saphir; Editing by James Dalgleish and Andrew Hay)
