Fed Vice-chair Jefferson says Bank has not changed its approach to monetary policy

Federal Reserve Vice Chair Philip Jefferson Q&A now:

• Fed has not changed its approach to monetary policy
• Fed is always thinking about the balance of risks
• Our goal has been to bring inflation down without causing undue or a disorderly increase in the unemployment rate
• Performance of labour market gave us headroom to keep policy restrictive for a long period
• Size of September rate cut was timely
• Fed’s rate cut was neither proactive or reactive

• Important not to focus on narrow measures of inflation, labor
  market
• need to look at totality of the data
• Fed aims to
  create economy with inflation at 2% and employment as high as
  possible
• if we do that, it will be possible for interest rates
  to be normalized
• Fed can’t influence housing affordability
  directly
• takes time to bring inflation down
• have been
  making gradual but good progress in bringing down rate of housing
  inflation

–

Again, Jefferson not really guiding on what is ahead for the Fed, apart from generic comments.

Earlier:

Fed Vice-chair Jefferson says will watch incoming data, making decision meeting by meeting

This article was written by Eamonn Sheridan at www.forexlive.com.