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Minneapolis Federal Reserve Chairman Neel Kashkari voiced opposition to the central bank’s decision to raise interest rates this week due to the latest weaker data on inflation.

“If we base our inflation prospects on this real data, we should not raise interest rates this week”, said Neel Kashkari, who has voted this year at the Federal Open Market Committee. “Instead, we had to wait and see if the recent slowdown in inflation is momentary to ensure that we meet our inflationary target”, added Kashkari said, opposed to rising interest rates in March.

The core inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, has slowed down to 1.7% last month, according to data released on Wednesday by the Labor Ministry. The report marks a third consecutive month of a surprising decline.

The Fed Chairman Janet Yellen said at a press conference after announcing the decision to raise interest rates that it is important not to react too strongly to some indicators and that inflation data can only show momentary status.

The Fed Chairman cited low unemployment as a reason for raising interest, referring to the link between the labor market and the price pressure (known as the Phillips curve), which she says “continues to work”.

In his comment, however, Kashkari criticizes his colleagues for following this line of thought.

“The result that the current Commission strives to avoid – the high inflation of the 1970s may in fact make us repeat some of the same mistakes made by the Commission in the 1970s: belief-based belief in Phillips curve and underestimating the role of expectations”, said the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Chairman. “In the 1970s, this belief led the Fed to keep interest rates too low, resulting in very high inflation. Today, this same belief can cause the Commission to repeatedly (and erroneously) predict accelerating inflation, which is why we raise interest rates too fast and we continue to fail to reach our inflation target”, added he.