Fed Maintains $85 Billion Pace of Monthly Asset PurchasesFederal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said further gains in the U.S. labor market are needed for the central bank to consider reducing its record monetary easing.
"Obviously, there has been improvement," he said at a news conference in Washington today after the Fed decided to leave the pace of asset purchases unchanged at $85 billion a month. "One thing we would need is to make sure that this is not a temporary improvement."
The Fed, seeking to boost the pace of growth and heal a job market still scarred by the deepest recession since the Great Depression, also said today it will leave its key interest rate near zero as long as unemployment remains above 6.5 percent and the outlook for inflation is less than 2.5 percent.
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