By ROBERT M. GARSSON
WASHINGTON -- Citicorp vice chairman William Rhodes said Monday he isn't worried that inflation will be rekindled under a Federal Reserve Board that is being reshaped quickly by President Clinton.
"Not with Chairman Greenspan's commitment to fighting inflation," he said.
Mr. Rhodes, acting chairman of the Institute for International Finance, commendted as the lending group issued its annual letter to the ministers of finance attending the spring meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
The institute, which represents 175 of the world's largest commercial banks and private lenders, warned that capital flows to the developing world this year won't match the high levels of 1993.
In large part, that's due to ininterest rate increases, which in turn reflect inflation concerns.
But Mr. Rhodes and the institute's managing director, Charles Dallara, said they believe inflation is under control.
"I'm very optimistic on that question," Mr. Rhodes said.
The two economists President Clinton intends to nominate for vacancies on the Federal Reserve Board are thought to be more concerned with economic growth than inflation.
The two, Council of Economic Advisers member Alan Blinder and University of California, Berkeley, professor Janet Yellen, are both regarded as liberals.
"Over the years, I have found tht almost all Federal Reserve Board appointees are concerned with inflation," Mr. Rhodes said. "The two things that always seem to be a concern of Fed governors are systemic risk and inflation."
Mr. Dallara said new net capital flows to developing countries topped $180 billion last year, a sixfold increase over the $27.5 billion recorded in 1987. That pace appears to have fallen off in the first quarter, he said. "Neither the surge in flows in 1992-1993 nor the sharp contraction at the beginning of 1994 has been especially desirable."
