NY Fed chief: I’d love to raise interest rates

New York Federal Reserve President William C. Dudley said Monday that he hopes market conditions improve enough for the central bank to increase interest rates by next year.

Dudley is the vice chairman of the Federal Open Market Committee, the central bank’s policymaking board, chaired by Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen, which ultimately sets the rates.

{mosads}Last week, Yellen pledged to keep interest rates near zero for a “considerable time,” even after the central bank ended its bond purchases used to help stimulate economic growth during the recession and the sluggish recovery.

“I would love to be able to raise interest rates some time during my tenure,” Dudley said on Monday at a forum hosted by Bloomberg Markets. “I’ve been president of the New York Fed since January 2009 and I have not done anything to interest rates during my tenure. I’m not going to do something to interest rates just for the sake of doing something for interest rates, obviously.”

Dudley said that it’d “be nice to see some sufficient progress in terms of the economy, labor market and inflation to be able to raise interest rates in 2015. That would make me very happy.”

He said that if the unemployment rate — currently at 6.1 percent — continues to decline, it could be “setting the stage for lift-off, hopefully sometime in 2015.”