By Ann Saphir

Jan 12 (Reuters) - With inflation running at its highest in nearly 40 years, U.S. central bankers are coalescing around a plan to start tapping the brakes on economic growth as soon as March, with further monetary policy tightening likely as the year goes on.

On Wednesday, San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank President Mary Daly became the latest U.S. central banker to set her sights on a rate hike in the next couple of months.

"It's really time for the U.S. central bank to start removing some of the accommodation we've been giving to the economy," she said in an interview on the PBS NewsHour. "I definitely see rate increases coming, as early as March even."

Coming from Daly - who as recently as November was calling for policy patience in the face of rising prices - the remarks are a clear signal that Fed policymakers are getting ready to put an end to the pandemic era of near-zero interest rates.

In December, Fed policymakers took a step toward that eventuality, agreeing to end their bond purchases by March, and signaling they could raise interest rates three times this year.

They have been buying bonds since the onset of the pandemic to ease financial conditions and push down on borrowing costs, delivering more stimulus to the economy than low short-term rates alone.

But fast-rising prices, and the prospect that the record spread of COVID-19 could worsen the supply-chain disruptions feeding inflation, are making them more eager to act.

U.S. consumer prices rose 7% in December from a year earlier, a government report early Wednesday showed, the fastest pace in nearly 40 years.

'AS FAST AS WE CAN'

In an interview In an interview published earlier Wednesday, Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic said he expects the Fed to raise rates three times this year, beginning in March, published earlier Wednesday, Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic said he expects the Fed to raise rates three times this year, beginning in March, and to shrink the Fed's massive balance sheet rapidly.

St. Louis Fed President James Bullard told the Wall Street Journal later in the day that he now sees four rate hikes, starting in March, as a likely scenario. Just last week he had said he expected three rate hikes.

And Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester on Wednesday https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-fed-mester/feds-mester-says-she-supports-reducing-balance-sheet-as-fast-as-feasible-idINKBN2JM1OS told the Wall Street Journal she supports starting rate hikes in March and reducing the Fed's balance sheet "as fast as we can conditional on it not being disruptive to the financial markets."