WASHINGTON (MNI) – The following is an excerpt from Federal Reserve
Chairman Ben Bernanke’s press conference following the September FOMC
statement, Wednesday:
Question:
The statement indicated that the highly accommodative stance would
be maintained until after the recovery starts to strengthen, but there
aren’t any specific economic conditions that are described. Could you
describe what those would be or is the fed — the fed seems reluctant to
have done that so far?
Bernanke:
Well, we’ve been talking about our communications at the FOMC and
trying to think about how best to communicate to the public, you know,
what our policy reactionary function so to speak is. And we haven’t come
to a set of numbers, a set of data that we can put out. But what we’re
trying to convey here is that we’re not going to be premature in
removing policy accommodation. Even after the economy starts to recover
more quickly, even after the unemployment rate begins to move down more
decisively we’re not going to rush to begin to tighten policy. We’re
going to give it some time to make sure the recovery is well
established.
** MNI Washington Bureau: 202-371-2121 **
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