IMF lauds Fed rate hike, says well-communicated

WASHINGTON, July 1 (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve's first rate hike in 4 years this week was a well-communicated and appropriate move while signs of U.S. inflation were no cause for alarm, the International Monetary Fund said on Thursday.

"It was a very appropriate move. They had been signaling it for some time," IMF chief economist Raghuram Rajan told reporters after a speech to the National Economists Club.

The Fed on Wednesday raised U.S. interest rates by a quarter percentage point to 1.25 percent and assured markets that underlying inflation was likely to remain relatively low.

Rajan agreed: "Thus far, we don't see any reason for anxiety. There are concerns of how oil prices feed back, but they have dropped off in the last few weeks."

Strong global growth pushed oil prices to a record high in early June with many other commodity markets also much stronger, fueling inflation fears in the United States and elsewhere.

The IMF has said interest rates around the world will have to rise substantially as economic recovery takes hold and that central banks faced a major challenge in communicating their strategies clearly to avoid alarming financial markets.

"I think they've been quite explicit, quite transparent, and I think it was a fully anticipated move," Rajan said of the Fed.

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