Fed's Williams: Fed can afford to be flexible and wait for data to guide our approach

New York Fed President John Williams recently crossed the newswires arguing that the Fed could afford to be flexible with regards to the monetary policy and wait for data to guide its approach.

Key quotes (via Reuters)

• Slower growth isn’t necessarily cause for alarm but instead a ‘new normal’ we should expect.
• From monetary policy perspective, economy is about as good as it gets.
• Expects growth to slow to around 2 pct this year.
• Potential U.S. economic growth appears to be about 2 pct.
• Current fed funds rate of 2.4 pct puts us at neutral.
• Outlook in Europe and China has become less bright, with downgrade to European outlook ‘notable’.
• Tightening of financial conditions in 2018 will restrain consumer, business spending in 2019.
• U.S. economy has strong labour market, moderate growth, no sign of significant inflation pressure.