US Federal Reserve Chairman Janet Yellen said today that the central bank remains firm in its plan to gradually raise interest rates to the “strength” of the US economy.
At an event in Washington, Yellen spoke of the growth of corporate investment and good US employment data, which stood at 4.2% in September, at full employment levels, as well as the benefits that the country is receiving for the global economic improvement.
Speaking of interest rates, Yellen said the US central bank. “continues to hope that the current strength of the economy will justify gradual increases in that rate to sustain a healthy labor market and stabilize inflation around our 2% long-term target.”
The year-on-year inflation rate closed August at 1.9%, below the central bank target of 2% a year.
The central bank is immersed in a gradual monetary tightening and has raised interest rates on two occasions throughout 2017, to the current range of 1% to 1.25%, and is expected to make the price of money again before the end of the year.
At the September meeting, the central bank headed by Janet Yellen decided to keep benchmark interest rates in the range of 1% to 1.25% unchanged.
Throughout this year, the Fed has raised the price of money twice and had anticipated in early 2017 up to three increases.
Upcoming meetings of the central bank’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), which runs US monetary policy, will take place later this month and mid-December.
Yellen spoke today at a seminar before the Group of Thirty, a think tank in Washington that brings together bankers, university students and international investors.
