Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Donald Kohn said recent market “turbulence” may decrease credit to businesses and consumers, suggesting he’s open to cutting interest rates next month, Bloomberg reported.

“The degree of deterioration that has happened over the last couple of weeks is not something that I personally anticipated,” Kohn said in response to a question following a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. “We are going to have to take a look at” the stress in credit markets “when we meet in a couple of weeks,” he said.

Kohn’s remarks differ from the Federal Open Market Committee’s Oct. 31 statement, reiterated by Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke a week later, that risks between growth and inflation were “roughly” balanced. Stocks advanced after the comments reinforced some investors’ expectations the Fed will cut its benchmark rate for a third straight meeting.

Kohn “has just given the markets the green light for a rate cut on Dec. 11,” said Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ in New York.

Kohn said “uncertainties” about the economic outlook are “unusually high” now, requiring policy-makers to be “flexible and pragmatic” in setting policy.