(Bloomberg) -- Central banks have a case for front-loading interest rate rises as they walk a “fine line” between tempering price pressures and supporting the economic recovery, according to Mark Carney, the former governor of the Bank of England. 

“Central bankers need to catch up to their economies. They’ve been behind the curve, they’ve acknowledged this,” Carney said in an interview with Bloomberg TV. “And they need to start to get interest rates above inflation effectively, or at least inflation expectations.”

“If you’re far behind, it does make sense to front-load,” said Carney, referring to the rapid rate cuts that the BOE carried out in the aftermath of the financial crisis and the Brexit vote. Carney stepped down from the central bank in 2020 and is now a vice chair at Brookfield Asset Management Inc. 

The European Central Bank has “rightly in my judgment” pulled forward quantitative tightening and will be keeping an eye on “outsize” spreads widening in the periphery of the euro area as they hold an extraordinary meeting today, Carney said. “It’s an unusual situation to be taking away with one hand, prospectively in the case of the ECB, but looking at how you can support market functioning and give with the other hand.”

He said the Federal Reserve could “ultimately, perhaps” find it necessary to raise rates to 4%, having responded slowly to inflation as the U.S. economy emerged from the pandemic.

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