The economic criteria necessary for the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates could be met in 2022, a senior US central bank official said on Monday.

Vice-chair Richard Clarida said that while the Fed still has a way to go before it considers any adjustments to its policy rates, the “necessary conditions” for interest rates to rise from current near-zero levels will be met by the end of next year should the economy progress as expected.

“While we are clearly a ways away from considering raising interest rates, if the outlooks for inflation and unemployment I summarised a moment ago turn out to be the actual outcomes realised over the forecast horizon, then I believe that these necessary conditions for raising the target range for the federal funds rate will have been met by year-end 2022,” he said on Monday in remarks delivered at an event hosted by the Brookings Institution.