NEW YORK (Reuters) – The U.S. Federal Reserve should stop buying bonds from the market now to contain rampant inflation, a top investment manager at BlackRock (NYSE:) said in a research note on Thursday, after higher-than-anticipated January inflation data.

The U.S. Consumer Price Index rose strongly in January. This was the largest annual inflation increase for 40 years. Markets are anticipating that the Fed will increase rates aggressively to cool down the economy.

In an effort to curb inflation, the U.S. central banking plans to decrease its almost $9 trillion balance, which increased in size in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, when the Fed purchased bonds from the market in order to sustain the economy.

In the months following the panic-caused recession, $120 Billion was bought each month by the Fed in Treasuries or mortgage-backed securities. Although it reduced its purchases, the Fed continues to make them. The Fed stated at the last meeting that it will increase Treasury securities holdings by at most $20 billion per month. Mortgage backed securities would be increased by at minimum $10 billion per month. These purchases would end at the beginning of March.

“The Fed is still infusing the system with QE through the middle part of March”, said Rick Rieder, BlackRock’s Chief Investment Officer of Global Fixed Income, referring to quantitative easing – the Fed’s bond-buying programme.

“The Fed needs to react and address today’s high levels of inflation and end QE now,” Rieder said in a note.

Rieder stated that while the Fed has responded to the pandemic in a “heroic” manner, now it was time for a more neutral policy stance and to avoid too strict tightening of monetary policies.

He said, “We believe policy must be adjusted rapidly, but not necessarily in total as the Fed weighs the data over the time. As this would create substantial risk for the markets, it is important to avoid excessively,”