Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said on Tuesday the US central bank was on track to keep reducing its policy stimulus, even as she acknowledged the labor market recovery was far from complete.
Janet Yellen on Monday was sworn in as chair of the Federal Reserve, the US central bank, replacing Ben Bernanke in the role. She is the first woman to hold the post at the Washington-based bank.
The International Monetary Fund urged central banks to ensure that a financial market rout in the developing world does not lead to an international funding crunch. An IMF spokesman said some emerging market countries need to take urgent action to improve their economies, which are under threat by a recent sell-off in markets from India and Turkey to Brazil.
The US Federal Reserve announced a $10bn reduction in its monthly bond purchases from 75bn to 65bn in the second straight month of winding down stimulus efforts. The central bank had been buying bonds in an effort to keep interest rates low and stimulate growth.
United States lawmakers are pressing the Federal Reserve to act more forcefully, and quickly, to limit banks’ involvement in the commodities business, which has been blamed for inflating prices on everyday items like electricity and canned beverages.
US President Barack Obama Friday nominated former Israeli central bank governor and renowned economist Stanley Fischer as vice chair of the Federal Reserve, completing a shakeup of the board's leadership.
Federal Reserve members mostly agreed about a reduction in the central bank's stimulus efforts in December, meeting minutes released Wednesday reveal. The central bank announced a $10bn a month reduction in its bond buying program at the end of its December meeting.
Janet Yellen, a key force behind the Federal Reserve's unprecedented and controversial efforts to boost the US economy, was confirmed on Monday by the Senate to lead the central bank just as it begins to unwind that stimulus.
The U.S. Federal Reserve will start scaling back its monthly bond-buying program as early as next month, but the reduction will be gradual. The Federal Reserve has been buying 85 billion dollars a month in government bonds in an effort to keep interest rates low and boost economic growth.
On the same day the Federal Reserve announced tapering of stimulus, the US Senate passed a two-year budget deal to ease automatic spending cuts and reduce the risk of a government shutdown, but fights were already breaking out over how to implement the budget pact