the head of the san francisco federal reserve said a key us interest rate is likely to be raised a “couple” of a more times this year to combat “persistently” high inflation mary daly said inflation is slowing but it’s still far too high “i think it’s a very reasonable projection to say a couple of more rate hikes will be necessary” she said in an interview monday at the brookings institution in washington dc the fed is widely expected to raise a key us interest rate again after its july 2526 meeting the central bank skipped a rate increase last month for the first time in 11 meetings since the spring of 2022 to try to figure out how much its prior rate hikes have slowed the economy while some parts of the economy such as manufacturing have retrenched other industries are still going strong especially in services such as travel and recreation the labor market is also quite robust with the unemployment extremely low at 36 the fed is aiming to restore inflation now running between 4 to 5 to prepandemic levels of 2 or so it’s raised a key shortterm us interest rate to a top end of 525 from near zero a year earlier the fed is primed to keep raising rates until the economy slows even further and the central bank is convinced high inflation is going away daly is not a voting member this year of the fed’s interestrate setting committee