Fed’s Mester says inflation data ‘uniformly bad,’ but not ready to commit to even bigger rate hike

Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President Loretta Mester said inflation data released earlier Wednesday was terrible, but she wasn’t yet ready to commit to further accelerating central bank interest rate rises to deal with the problem.

The June consumer-price index “was uniformly bad, there was no good news in that report,” Mester said in a Bloomberg radio interview. “Until we get and see convincing evidence that inflation has turned the corner, is on a downward path and is sustainably on a downward path, we just have more work to do.”