–Looks Like Moderate Growth In 4Q As Well
WASHINGTON (MNI) – The following is a transcript of responses of
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke Wednesday to questions during a
press conference following the FOMC meeting:
QUESTION FROM MARKET NEWS INTERNATIONAL:
You mentioned that the Fed has the tools and stands ready to use
it. But given that in the statement it says that the committee saw
growth strengthen somewhat in the third quarter, is it fair to say that
the FOMC is less aggressively considering more policy accommodation
given the improvement we saw in the third quarter?
BERNANKE:
We did see some improvement in the third quarter. A modest
improvement. We saw, for example, stronger consumption spending,
reasonable amount of capital investment, lower inventories, therefore
suggesting more production in the fourth quarter. So it looks like the
fourth quarter as well will be a moderate growth quarter.
So there was some improvement, some improvement at least early in
the period in financial markets, although some of that has been
reversed. So that was part of the situation that we were acknowledging
in our statement. That’s true. But as has been noted the medium term
outlook relative to our June projections has been downgraded and the
outlook remains unsatisfactory over the next few years. And will
continue to ask ourselves whether or not additional stimulus or
additional actions can provide a better outcome and that’s certainly
something that remains on the table and will continue to evaluate as we
go forward.
** Market News International Washington Bureau: 202-371-2121 **
[TOPICS: M$U$$$,MMUFE$,MGU$$$,MFU$$$]
