US central bank should not raise inflation target, Fed's Kaplan says

Governments from around the world, including that of the United States, need to boost public spending in order to boost economic growth, a top US central bank official said.

Speaking at the Hoover Institution's annual monetary policy conference, on Thursday, the president of the Federal Reserve bank of San Francisco, John Williams, added that up until now many nations had balked at increased fiscal spending.

That and other other policies aimed at encouraging growth were the best option and not an increase in the central bank's inflation target as the International Monetary Fund and other observers were suggesting, he said, according to Reuters.

Williams reportedly also suggested the Fed should consider targeting a given level of economic growth.

His counterparts at the Federal Reserve banks of Atlanta and Dallas, Dennis Lockhart and Robert Kaplan, who participated in the same panel, also pushed back at the idea of increasing the inflation target.

"The challenge of our times right now is becoming clear, and that is growth," Lockhart said.

Raising the inflation target was not a practical solution, Williams added.