Economics
Powell Says Taper Could Start in 2021, With No Rush on Rate Hike
- Reductions not intended as a signal on rate hikes, he says
- Fed chair speaks Friday at virtual Jackson Hole symposium
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Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the central bank could begin reducing its monthly bond purchases this year, though it won’t be in a hurry to begin raising interest rates thereafter.
The economy has now met the test of “substantial further progress” toward the Fed’s inflation objective that Powell and his colleagues said would be a precondition for tapering the bond-buying, while the labor market has also made “clear progress,” the Fed chief said Friday in a virtual speech to the Kansas City Fed’s annual Jackson Hole symposium.