(Bloomberg) -- Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Richard Clarida said policy makers shouldn’t wait until the economy has obviously stumbled before cutting interest rates in an effort to “keep the economy on an even keel.”

“You don’t need to wait until things get so bad to have a dramatic series of rate cuts,” Clarida said Thursday in an interview on Fox Business Network, citing economic research. “We need to make a decision based on where we think the economy may be heading and, importantly, where the risks to the economy are lined up.”

His remarks line up with testimony last week by Fed Chairman Jerome Powell and comments earlier in the day from New York Fed President John Williams that have cemented expectations for a rate cut when officials meet July 30-31 in Washington. Investors, weighing their words, increased bets Thursday that the Fed will move by a half point at the gathering.

While the U.S. economy is “in a good place,” Clarida said recent global economic data have been softer than expected. “We’ve had mixed data, but I do think the global data has been disappointing on the downside,” he said. “Disinflationary pressures, if anything, are more intense than I thought six weeks ago.”

Clarida, the No. 2 official at the Fed, spoke not long after Williams appeared in New York, saying: “When you only have so much stimulus at your disposal, it pays to act quickly to lower rates at the first sign of economic distress.”

But not all Fed officials are on board even a quarter-point decrease.

Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic, who has previously expressed skepticism of the need to lower rates, underlined that view earlier Thursday in Tennessee. He rejected the notion that yields in Treasury bonds provide a warning that should cause the Fed to cut.

“It’s important for us to stay grounded in the real economy,” said Bostic, who doesn’t vote on policy this year. Clarida and Williams are permanent voters.

Asked if the Fed can decide to leave rates unchanged this month, Clarida replied, “We go into every meeting looking at the range of options available to us. I think our messaging has been quite clear that we want to put in place the appropriate policies to keep the economy in a good place.”

To contact the reporters on this story: Christopher Condon in Washington at ccondon4@bloomberg.net;Rich Miller in Washington at rmiller28@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alister Bull at abull7@bloomberg.net, Jeff Kearns

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