Fed bond buying will run for a ‘long time’: goldman’s hatzius

Although minutes from the last FEDERAL RESERVE meeting showed growing concern among members about the central bank's bond-buying program, Goldman Sachs economist Jan Hatzius told CNBC

he expects quantitative easing to continue well into 2014. "My expectation is QE is still going to run for a long time through 2013, even 2014 at a reduced pace," Hatzius said in a

"SQUAWK ON THE STREET" interview. "That obviously is only going to become clear over time and it's going to depend on the economic data." When the minutes were

released on Thursday from the December policy setting meeting, 10-YEAR TREASURYYIELDS spiked to eight-month highs, the DOLLAR rose and GOLD fell as investors feared that the Fed would end

its purchases of bonds sooner than had been anticipated. These purchases have been adding But Hatzius noted that not every member on the Fed's policy making decisions has the same

amount of influence. "What the chairman thinks, what the leadership thinks isn't reflected in the minutes," he said. In September, the Fed linked its bond buying program to

unemployment, pledging to continue the scheme until the U.S. jobless rate fell below 6.5 percent. But Hatzius said "the Fed's made it pretty clear that they're not going to be

focused exclusively on the 6.5 percent unemployment number." (Read More: END OF STIMULUS? WHY IT ISN'T ALL BAD NEWS) The bigger concern for the economy in 2013 is fiscal policy

and the potential impact higher payroll taxes will have on consumer spending. "It's about $125 billion that's no longer going to be going to the consumer," he said of the

2 percent increase. "The January and February data on consumer spending and auto sales are going to be important because we'll get a much better sense of how big an impact it will

have."