"We will need to resist the temptation to act quickly when patience is needed and be prepared to respond agilely as the economy evolves," Daly said in remarks prepared for delivery to the National Association for Business Economics. Inflation declined rapidly last year, from 5.5% in January to 2.6% in December by the Fed's targeted measure of the personal consumption expenditures price index. Unemployment, meanwhile, was 3.7% last month, up just three tenths of a percentage point from the start of the year.