(Reuters) - In the run-up to this week's meeting, Fed Chair Janet Yellen and most other Federal Reserve governors have been silent, and a host of other Fed officials have given mixed signals about raising interest rates. Below is a summary of who stands where, followed by their comments from the last several weeks.
LEANING TOWARD
Leaning toward a rate increase: Richmond Fed President Jeffrey Lacker, St Louis Fed President James Bullard, Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester, Kansas City Fed President Esther George.
"It's time to align our monetary policy with the significant progress we have made," Lacker said on Sept. 4 in a speech titled "The Case Against Further Delay."
"Nothing has happened here that is so radically changing the U.S. outlook that the basic trajectory of policy would change," Bullard said on Aug. 28. "So let's get going."
"(M)y basic outlook that the U.S. economy is solid and it could support an increase in interest rates," Mester said on Aug. 28.
"At this point, for me, I have not seen something that would change my own sense of how the economy is doing," George said on Aug. 27.
ON THE FENCE
On the fence: San Francisco Fed President John Williams, Atlanta Fed President Dennis Lockhart, New York Fed President William Dudley, Fed Vice Chair Stanley Fischer.
"All of the data that we have had up until now has been, I think, encouraging. It ... has been about as good, or better, than I was expecting, in terms of the U.S. economy," Williams told the Wall Street Journal on Sept 4. "But there are some pretty significant - and I would say have now grown larger - headwinds that have developed."
"I think all the upcoming meetings, the next three meetings, should all be live meetings, and I think we should keep our options open," Lockhart said on Aug. 28. "(The) most recent data I saw was about a 50 percent ... And that seems to me, given the current circumstances, a reasonable assessment of the situation."
"At this moment, the decision to begin the normalization process at the September FOMC meeting seems less compelling to me than it was a few weeks ago," Dudley said on Aug. 26. But an initial rate increase "could become more compelling by the time of the meeting as we get additional information on how the U.S. economy is performing and (on) international financial market developments, all of which are important to shaping the U.S. economic outlook."
"Given the apparent stability of inflation expectations, there is good reason to believe that inflation will move higher as the forces holding down inflation dissipate further," Fischer said on Aug. 29.
LEANING AGAINST
Leaning against a rate increase: Minneapolis Fed President Narayana Kocherlakota, Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren, Chicago Fed President Charles Evans.
"There's just no reason to go now," Kocherlakota said on Aug 28.
"There are very good reasons to expect a much more gradual normalization process than occurred in the previous two tightening cycles," Rosengren said on Sept. 1 of pending rate increases, adding, "this more modest tightening path is both necessary and appropriate."
(Reporting by Reuters Fed reporting team; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)
