WASHINGTON – Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell reaffirmed the central bank’s commitment to maintaining easy money policies until the economy recovers from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
“The economy is a long way from our employment and inflation targets,” Powell said in statements to the Senate Banking Committee, a statement he has repeated in recent weeks. Therefore, the Fed will continue to support the economy with near-zero interest rates and large-scale asset purchases until “substantial further progress” is made, a standard that Powell said “is likely to take some time ”to be achieved.
Powell handed over the Fed’s six-month monetary policy report to committee members on Tuesday and will do so the same Wednesday at a hearing of the House Financial Services Committee.
Hearings come as steady progress in vaccinations and several rounds of fiscal stimulus have improved the outlook for the economy, the Fed chief noted.
Daily coronavirus cases have fallen since the peak in early January, and recent economic data, including retail sales, industrial production, procurement and service sector activity, have indicated that economic growth increased the new year after the slowdown in late 2020. Consumer confidence in the U.S. rose in February for the second month in a row as Americans grew more optimistic about current business and labor market conditions, he reported. on Tuesday the Conference Board. However, almost a year after the crisis erupted in the United States, the nation has about 10 million fewer payroll jobs than in February 2020.