Federal Reserve member in Midwest plans to leave

WASHINGTON – Narayana Kocherlakota, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, said Friday he will step down when his current term ends in early 2016, marking the departure of one of the Fed’s leading proponents of easier credit conditions to battle unemployment.

Kocherlakota said that he has informed the regional bank’s board of directors that he has decided he will not seek another term once his current term ends Feb. 29, 2016. He was appointed to head the Minneapolis bank in October 2009.

Currently a voting member of the Federal Open Market Committee, Kocherlakota cast the lone dissenting vote at the Fed’s last meeting in October. He argued against ending the Fed’s bond-buying program and urged the central bank to make a commitment to achieving its inflation target before starting to raise interest rates.

Confronted with the massive job loss caused by the Great Recession, Kocherlakota became a leading proponent for keeping short-term interest rates at record lows and buying massive amounts of bonds to hold down long-term rates to boost economic growth and fight high unemployment.

Two other top Fed officials, Philadelphia Fed President Charles Plosser and Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher, have announced they will step down from their posts in spring 2015.