U.S. economic growth during the first half of 2011 was disappointing, but the second half should bring stronger performance, said Atlanta Fed President Dennis Lockhart in two recent interviews televised from the 3rd Annual Rocky Mountain Economic Summit in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. He also delivered a speech as part of the conference.
Many of the transitory factors that held back growth in the first half will subside, said Lockhart in his interview on Bloomberg TV. Further, the Fed's highly accommodative monetary policy will help set the scene for stronger growth—somewhere in the neighborhood of 3 percent.
In the interview on CNBC that also featured St. Louis Fed President James Bullard, Lockhart discussed recent inflation data, noting that higher measures of core and headline inflation are also likely to be transitory. Based on his conversations with southeastern businesses, core measures are elevated because businesses have been able to pass through higher input costs. He expects the core and headline inflation measures to subside and believes that "the transitory inflation story will and is, in fact, playing through."
For more of Lockhart's comments on the U.S. economy and monetary policy, watch the interviews in their entirety below.
Lockhart Speaks on Bloomberg Television
Fed's Dennis Lockhart on Economy, Stimulus, Debt Ceiling