Skip to navigationSkip to main contentSkip to right columnADVERTISEMENTCris TolomiaTue, August 11, 2026 at 2:41 PM GMT+2 2 min readCleveland Federal Reserve President Beth Hammack said Monday that more than one interest rate increase will likely be needed to bring inflation back under control, warning that the central bank should begin acting now before the problem becomes harder to resolve."I would say in general, one 25 basis point move probably doesn't do a whole lot for the economy," Hammack told Yahoo Finance in an interview. "So it's probably some number of [movements]. But I don't want to prejudge what that number is going to be."Hammack said she does not believe interest rates in their current range of 3.5% to 3.75% are placing meaningful restraint on the economy. "When I'm talking to businesses, I'm not hearing that they're sensing any restraint from investments in growth based on where interest rates are," she said. "So to me that says that now is the time to act."She warned that delays by the Fed risk allowing inflation to drift further from the 2% target, making the eventual task of taming it more costly. She used a driving analogy, saying it is better to begin slowing down well ahead of time than to wait and be forced into a sudden, jarring stop."Nothing would make me feel better than to be wrong, that we need to change the stance of policy to help bring inflation back to target," Hammack said. "But from where I sit, I just don't see it coming back on its own."The Fed's preferred inflation measure, the Personal Consumption Expenditures index, stood at 3.3% on a core basis in June, while core CPI came in at 2.6% for the same month. Investors will receive the July CPI reading on Wednesday.Hammack also said July's jobs report — which showed a loss of 23,000 positions — has not shifted her focus away from inflation. She pointed to the fact that monthly job creation has run in the 20,000-to-25,000 range on average over the last twelve months, and described the 4.1% unemployment rate as broadly consistent with full employment.Hammack