U.S. Fed can be patient on tapering while inflation is low - Bullard

Low readings on inflation mean that the U.S. Federal Reserve can be patient on deciding when to scale back its pace of asset purchases, a senior Fed official said on Friday, cautioning that he would not back action until price pressures picked up.

"While I expect inflation to rise during the coming quarters, I want to see evidence of such an increase before endorsing less accommodative policy action by the FOMC," James Bullard, president of the St. Louis Federal Reserve, said.

Bullard said earlier on Friday in an interview with Bloomberg television that the Fed could still scale back its massive bond-buying campaign at its next meeting, at the end of October, if the data was strong enough.

The Federal Open Market Committee, the Fed's policy-setting body, on Wednesday voted to continue to buy bonds at a monthly pace of $85 billion.  (more)

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