Inflation well under way toward 2 percent target: Fed’s Evans

MADRID (Reuters) – Long-term inflation expectations may still be running below the U.S. Federal Reserve’s target of 2 percent, though in the shorter term prices are rising toward that figure, Chicago Fed President Charles Evans said on Monday.

“Inflation is well under way toward our 2 percent target,” Evans told a conference in Madrid. “I’d like to see it happen a little bit sooner than many forecast. I still worry that long term inflation expectations are running below our 2 percent inflation objective.”

Evans said he did not expect core inflation, which strips out volatile elements like energy prices, would reach the 2 percent target until 2019.

(Reporting by Sarah White and Jesus Aguado; Editing by Julien Toyer)