Will pause taper only if data is much weaker: Fed's Lacker

The US Federal Reserve may speed up or slow down the pace at which it winds down its massive bond-buying programme, a top Fed official said on Friday, but only a sharp downturn in the data would justify putting the tapering process on hold.

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"The door has to be seen as open" for changing the pace at which the Fed trims the programme, Richmond Federal Reserve President Jeffrey Lacker told reporters after a speech here.

The Fed last month cut its monthly bond-buying by $10 billion, to $75 billion a month, and signaled it would wind down the program by the end of 2014.

"For me the data would have to be much weaker on a sustained basis to want to pause," said Lacker, who has been an opponent of bond-buying from its start.