WASHINGTON (MNI) – The following is a transcription of responses of
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke Wednesday to questions during a
press conference following the FOMC meeting:
QUESTION:
Could you elabborate on what conditions would be appropriate to do
additional large scale asset purchases. What your reaction function is
right now?
BERNANKE:
Well, I don’t think I can be as precise as you would like. I — the
MBS purchases and Treasury securities purchases are one set of tools
that we have. The other set of tools that we are communication tools
which essentially tie interest rate decisions to economic conditions or
to time. Those are with interest rates close to 0. Those are basically
the two tools that we have and we need to continue to work on how best
to use them and what combination to use them to achieve our objectives.
In terms of when we would use these, I think all I can say is the
committee will have to look at the outlook and if if judges that we are
falling sufficiently far short of our objectives, inflation falling at
or below its target and growth being insufficient and that we believe
that monetary stimulus would be beneficial, you know, then the committee
would obviously try to take corrective action. But I can’t — it is a
committee decision. We will have to look at the outlook but remain
prepared to take action as appropriate to make sure that the recovery
continues, to make sure that we have stable prices in the U.S.
** Market News International Washington Bureau: 202-371-2121 **
[TOPICS: M$U$$$,MMUFE$,MGU$$$,MFU$$$]
