Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, on Wednesday, will likely use his first-ever news conference on monetary policy to hammer home the case for a patient approach to withdrawing the central bank’s extensive support for the US economy. He will face the press this afternoon at the end of a two-day policy meeting, the first time a Fed chairman has held a regularly scheduled news conference in the central bank’s 97-year history.
Bernanke is expected to amplify the consensus view at the central bank that the economy still needs monetary policy support with near-zero interest rates and its purchases of more than $2.0 trillion in longer-term securities.
That consensus has been challenged by a number of hawkish Fed officials who worry the US central bank might wait too long to raise interest rates from their zero percent to 0.25 percent range, a historic low reached in December 2008, and to shed the assets it has bought.
Bernanke is expected to amplify consensus view at the central bank that the economy still needs monetary policy support. That consensus has been challenged by a number of hawkish Fed officials who worry the US central bank might wait too long to raise interest rates.
“The Fed is trying to walk a very fine line right now,” said Julia Coronado of BNP Paribas. “So you will probably see the Fed speak about an improving economy and acknowledge rising energy prices without sounding too hawkish. The economy still needs the support of the Fed.”
