The US economy is not fully recovered from its deep recession, with housing still weighing on growth, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Friday in a speech spelling out ways the US central bank has studied lower income communities.
The Federal Reserve said on Wednesday it will maintain the current rates and is in no rush to scale back its extensive support for the US economy while estimating that the increase in commodity prices (and inflation) is transitory.
Brazil believes the impact of an undervalued US dollar which is appreciating other currencies such as the Brazilian Real, ‘won’t last long’ according to forecasts from Finance Minister Guido Mantega.
Members of the US Federal Reserve are in sharp disagreement about how to address rising prices. The bank might need to tighten the reins on the economy before the end of the year to stave off inflation, said some members of the central bank's policy-setting body.
United States Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Richard W. Fisher said he sees “extraordinary speculative activity” in the US after the central bank pumped record amounts of stimulus into the economy.
Arguing that the US economic recovery is on a firmer footing, and overall conditions in the labour market appear to be improving gradually, the Federal Reserve on Tuesday left interest rates unchanged at a record low of zero to 0.25% since December 2008.
The recent hike in oil prices will likely cause a “temporary and relatively modest increase in U.S. consumer price inflation,” but sustained increases could pose a more serious threat to the economy, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said earlier this week.
Brazil is as concerned about the decline of the U.S. dollar as it is about the Chinese currency and has no plans for a joint initiative with Washington to press China to let its currency appreciate faster, said Finance Minister Guido Mantega
US Federal Reserve officials are increasingly confident of the economic recovery but remain unsatisfied with the healing of the job market, minutes of their January meeting released showed.
US unemployment remains too high for policymakers' comfort despite signs of strength in the economic recovery, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said. In testimony to the US House of Representatives' Budget Committee that largely echoed a speech he delivered last week, Bernanke also warned about the dangers of unsustainable budget deficits.