(Bloomberg) — Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Raphael Bostic said he favors raising interest rates by 25 basis points at the Federal Open Market Committee’s March meeting and would consider a larger half-point move if monthly inflation readings fail to decline from elevated levels.

“I am still in favor of a 25 basis-point move at the March meeting,” Bostic said Monday in a virtual discussion with Harvard University students. 

“One data point that I am looking at in particular is month-to-month change in inflation. If we see this trend downward, I’ll be happy with a move of 25 basis points. If that continues to persist at elevated levels, or even moves in the other direction, then I am really going to have to look at a 50-basis-point move for March.”

The February consumer price index data will be available on March 10, five days prior to the FOMC’s two-day policy meeting. Bloomberg News polled economists to predict that the consumer prices index will increase 0.7% from last month, while it is expected to climb 7.8% year over year.

Fed officials in the past week stuck to their resolve to raise interest rates next month despite uncertainty posed by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with Governor Christopher Waller discussing the possibility of a half-point move. 

Although they acknowledged the dangers of conflict which has caused one the most severe security crises in Europe in the past 40 years and caused oil prices jump, central bankers stressed that it was necessary to combat the highest U.S. inflation in forty years. 

Bostic said that he does not currently vote on monetary policies this year and wanted to make sure no one was surprised at the possibility of an even larger move.

“Historically, over the last 10 years or so our moves have been in 25 basis point increments,” he said. “I was hearing and getting a sense that many expected that was the only type of move we could do. This is incorrect. We need to make sure people have different levels of move in mind, and awareness of those are possibilities.”

Bostic stated that every one of the FOMC meetings in this year’s will be significant for a move.

“Every meeting is live for us,” he said. “ As data comes in, we will have to make judgments about what happens at every stage of the way.”

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