the federal reserve should raise its benchmark interest rate slightly above 5 and then pause said philadelphia fed president patrick harker on thursday “i expect that we will raise rates a few more times this year though to my mind the days of us raising them 75 basis points at a time have surely passed in my view hikes of 25 basis points will be appropriate going forward” harker said in a speech to the main line chamber of commerce in suburban philadelphia harker said he thought the fed should raise its rates slightly above 5 and then “we sit there” the philadelphia fed president is a voting member of the central bank’s interestrate committee this year harker said that the december consumer price data shows “inflation is coming down” read inflation softens at the end of 2022 with inflation moving in the right direction the fed doesn’t have to “overdo the monetary policy response” he said he forecast that core inflation will slow to a 35 rate this year and then move down to 25 in 2024 getting back to the fed’s 2 target will take time he said harker said he did not expect the fed to stumble into a recession this year “the labor markets are simply too hot to indicate a significant downturn at this point” he said stocks djia spx opened higher on thursday on the cooling of inflation the yield on the 10year treasury note tmubmusd10y inched down to 351