WASHINGTON (MNI) – The following is a transcript of comments made
by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke during a Senate Banking
Committee hearing on monetary policy and the economy.

In response to a question about what hurdle or threshold would have
to be crossed before the Fed begins tightening, Bernanke gave the
following response:

“That’s certainly got to be a committee decision. But I would say
that certainly one important criteria would be whether the recovery is
sustainable, whether its fading and not being self-propelling. If the
recovery is continuing at a moderate pace, then the incentive to take
extraordinary actions would be somewhat less.

“But certainly we would want to make sure that the economy
continues to move back towards a more normal state of resource
utilization.”

** Market News International Washington Bureau: 202-371-2121 **

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