CHICAGO (Reuters) - Signs the U.S. recovery is gaining strength suggest the Federal Reserve may not need to buy any more bonds to spur growth, a top policymaker said on Saturday.
"I don't think it's very likely right now because the tone of the data has been pretty strong" through the end of 2011 and up to now, St. Louis Fed President James Bullard told reporters after a speech at an economics conference. "We can probably wait and see for now."
The Federal Reserve cut benchmark rates to near zero more than three years ago and has bought $2.3 trillion in bonds to boost growth.
The U.S. economy has shown signs of accelerating growth in recent months. Employers added 200,000 jobs in December and the unemployment rate eased to 8.5 percent, near a three-year low.
Bullard's comments show a Fed still divided over the need for more accommodation to ensure a soft recovery does not dissipate or wilt due to an outside shock such as an intensification of the European debt crisis. On Friday, some Fed officials urged another round of buying mortgage-backed securities to shore up the depressed housing market.
Foreshadowing a development expected at the Fed's meeting later this month, Bullard said that the Fed's adopting of an explicit inflation target would reassure markets that the central bank will under no circumstances tolerate high inflation to get the economy back on its feet.
Federal Reserve Governor Sarah Bloom Raskin said in a speech in Washington that the Fed must impose monetary penalties on banks over mortgage servicing problems, but did not comment on the outlook for the economy or monetary policy.
(Reporting By Mark Felsenthal; Additional reporting by Dave Clarke in Washington; Editing by Andrea Ricci)
