Economics
Yellen Signals Confidence in Economy Ahead of Fed Meeting
- Fed chair says conditions have met expectations since October
- Waiting too long for liftoff risks disruptive tightening
Did Fed Chair Yellen Offer Anything New in Speech?
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Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said she’s confident in the outlook for economic growth and warned that waiting too long to end the era of near-zero interest rates could force the central bank to tighten too quickly, which would risk disrupting financial markets and the six-year expansion.
“Were the FOMC to delay the start of policy normalization for too long, we would likely end up having to tighten policy relatively abruptly to keep the economy from significantly overshooting both of our goals,” Yellen the Economic Club of Washington on Wednesday. “Such an abrupt tightening would risk disrupting financial markets and perhaps even inadvertently push the economy into recession.”