(Reuters] – To combat rising prices, the U.S. Federal Reserve needs to slow down the economy, James Bullard from the St Louis Fed said in an interview with the Financial Times.

The Fed cannot bring inflation down enough without raising interest rates. He stated that it was a fantasy to believe this. Furthermore, the Fed should be aggressive in trying to eliminate the largest inflation rate in the past four decades.

According to the newspaper, he stated that “We must put downward pressure upon the component of inflation we believe is persistent”, and called for interest rates to be raised to curtail growth.

Bullard stated, in reference to the new inflation data showing the Fed was behind the curve in moving forward. Bullard referred to the fact that U.S. monthly consumer price in March rose by the largest amount in 16-1/2 Years.

Officials at the St. Louis Fed didn’t immediately reply to Reuters’ request for comment.

Bullard last week stated that the Fed had fallen behind in fighting inflation and called for an increase of the federal funds rates by three percentage points per year.