Fed official urges US to consider easing A senior Federal Reserve official said the US should consider easing monetary policy if the economic outlook continued to deteriorate, as US central bankers face growing pressure to react to the slowdown in the recovery. Dennis Lockhart, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, said on Wednesday that the current stance of US monetary policy was still "appropriate." However, citing last Friday's weak jobs report, Mr Lockhart said there was a "halting and tenuous character to the recovery" that could merit fresh action by the Fed if conditions worsened. "Should it become clear that something resembling my baseline scenario of continued, though modest, growth is no longer realistic, further monetary actions to support the recovery will certainly need to be considered," Mr Lockhart said in prepared remarks for a speech in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Mr Lockhart is known as a centrist voting member of the Federal Open Market Committee, which is due to meet later this month to set interest rates. The committee is also expected to debate the conditions under which it would embark on a fresh round of monetary stimulus such as new asset purchases, known as QE3. Mr Lockhart made clear that further easing was linked to the realisation of risks such as a financial crisis in Europe. The next FOMC meeting will conclude three days after Greece holds repeat elections so even policy makers are unsure what conditions they will face. Ben Bernanke, Federal reserve chairman, is scheduled to testify before Congress on Thursday, which could give some clues to his critical position on the economy and the conditions for fresh easing measures. The Fed has kept interest rates at rock-bottom levels, and officials said they expect this to continue until the end of 2014. Furthermore, the Fed last year extended the maturity on its asset portfolio to support the recovery, suggesting the threshold for further action is quite high. This week, Richard Fisher, president of the Dallas Fed, and James Bullard, president of the Saint Louis Fed, suggested looser monetary policy should not be on the cards yet. "Short of an implosion, I cannot support further quantitative easing," Mr Fisher said. Mr Bullard said the economic outlook had "not changed significantly so far." Mr Fisher and Mr Bullard do not hold votes on the FOMC this year, however. But in his speech on Wednesday, Mr Lockhart laid out an array of concerns about the "underwhelming" US recovery. "It is nearly impossible to escape the conclusion that we are replaying in some manner the spring-summer slowdowns of the past two years," he said. Mr Lockhart described risks to the US economy ranging from a further large drop in house prices, to uncertainty over the "fiscal cliff" scheduled for next year, to the eurozone crisis and the slowdown in growth in emerging markets. "The situation we face requires that the FOMC maintain a state of readiness to respond to financial or economic instability should the need arise," Mr Lockhart said. The strongest objections to further easing come from Fed officials who fear that such a move could stoke a spike in inflation. The data released on Wednesday - showing that unit labour costs in the first quarter advanced at a much slower pace than previously thought - could help assuage those concerns. The Fed's latest "beige book" - a summary of anecdotal economic evidence from across the country released on Wednesday - will do little to spur officials to consider fresh action. Reports from the 12 Fed districts in the weeks to May 25 showed that economic activity grew at a "moderate pace" - with just Philadelphia signalling a slower rate of expansion. The Fed's contacts across the country reported continued growth in the manufacturing and property sectors, while consumer spending was unchanged or slightly higher, amid modest wage pressures. "Economic outlooks remain positive, but contacts were slightly more guarded in their optimism," the Fed said.