Federal Reserve Vice Chair Philip Jefferson Q&A now:
Fed has not changed its approach to monetary policyFed is always thinking about the balance of risksOur goal has been to bring inflation down without causing undue or a disorderly increase in the unemployment rate Performance of labour market gave us headroom to keep policy restrictive for a long periodSize of September rate cut was timelyFed’s rate cut was neither proactive or reactive
Important not to focus on narrow measures of inflation, labor
market
need to look at totality of the data
Fed aims to
create economy with inflation at 2% and employment as high as
possible
if we do that, it will be possible for interest rates
to be normalized
Fed can’t influence housing affordability
directly
takes time to bring inflation down
have been
making gradual but good progress in bringing down rate of housing
inflation
–
Again, Jefferson not really guiding on what is ahead for the Fed, apart from generic comments.
Earlier:
Fed Vice-chair Jefferson says will watch incoming data, making decision meeting by meeting
This article was written by Eamonn Sheridan at www.forexlive.com.
