Fed's Bostic says U.S. payrolls report does not change his outlook

Jan 6 (Reuters) - Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic said on Friday that the latest U.S. jobs figures do change his overall assessment of where the economy is headed.

"It doesn't really change my outlook. I've been looking for the economy to continually slow from the strong position it was at in the summer time," Bostic said in an interview with broadcaster CNBC. "This is just a step in that...it's going incrementally...because of that we got to stay the course, inflation is too high, we to reduce those imbalances."

The economy maintained a strong pace of job growth in December, government data showed earlier on Friday, with the unemployment rate falling to 3.5%, but a moderation in wage gains heartened investors as the Fed aims to bring down high inflation without sparking mass layoffs.

(Reporting by Lindsay Dunsmuir; Editing by Jon Boyle)

((Lindsay.Dunsmuir@thomsonreuters.com; +1 646 384 8221;))