INDEPENDANT Bostic, a voting member this year on the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee, asserted that the goal ahead is to calibrate policy to be not so restrictive as to choke off growth while still acting as a bulwark against persistently elevated prices.

However, he said a “golden path” scenario of tamping down inflation while promoting solid growth and healthy employment is getting closer than many Fed officials had expected.

“Because I’m data dependent, I have incorporated the unexpected progress on inflation and economic activity into my outlook, and thus moved up my projected time to begin normalizing the federal funds rate to the third quarter of this year from the fourth quarter,” Bostic said in prepared remarks for a speech to business leaders in Atlanta.