WRAPUP 1-Fed says it stands ready to act on inflation
Thu Jan 20, 2005 08:45 PM ET
By Ros Krasny
SAN FRANCISCO, Jan 20 (Reuters) - Officials from the U.S. Federal Reserve again assured the market on Thursday the central bank stands ready to adjust its stance on interest rates if assumptions on inflation shift markedly.
In separate appearances, St. Louis Fed President William Poole and San Francisco Fed President Janet Yellen -- non-voters on the Federal Open Market Committee in 2005 -- said U.S. price pressures appear to be under control.
But Poole, regarded as one of the Fed's hawks on inflation, said the FOMC will move aggressively to protect low inflation if the need arises.
"The FOMC has emphasized that it is prepared, if necessary, to move more aggressively to protect the relatively low rates of core inflation that now exist," Poole said in a speech to a Mississippi forecasting conference.
Yellen offered a similar pledge on a responsive Fed but also spoke of the possibility of an opposite outcome in a speech that showcased the potential for downside surprises on inflation.
"If the expansion slows, or if we experience some of the downside inflation risks, there will be more opportunities for the committee to pause," Yellen said in a speech to the Financial Women's Association of San Francisco.
Yellen said she wanted to give "equal time" to counterbalancing forces on inflation, from continued labor market slackness to productivity gains to the market's confidence in the Fed's vigilence.
TIME RUNNING OUT ON 'MEASURED PACE'?
The first FOMC meeting for 2005 is slated for Feb. 1-2. Fixed income dealers are debating whether the Fed will tweak its language, possibly dropping the months-long reference to removing accommodation at a measured pace, in favor of a "data driven" policy that has become a catchphrase recently.
Also under scrutiny is whether the Fed will shift its assessment of the balance of inflation risks.
Blunt language in the December FOMC minutes on what "some" members saw as potential for excessive risk-taking in financial markets as a result of accommodative policy appeared to set the Fed up for a more hawkish tone in February.
But Yellen said it was not possible to say that inflation doves were currently in the minority at the Fed.
Generally, Fed officials have sounded a little more concerned about the risks of inflation but not so much that the market fears a quicker pace of monetary tightening
If anything, financial futures suggest a greater number of rate hikes, with up to four more 25 percentage point increases before a potential pause at mid-year.
Fed policy-makers have raised overnight lending costs five times since June to take the federal funds rate to 2.25 percent from a decades-low 1.0 percent.
GO YELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN
Analysts think more interest rate hikes are in store this year to head off inflation concerns, with the projected year-end fed funds rate just above 3.50 percent.
The Fed, as part of a commitment to clearer communication, has been on a mission to warn financial markets that rate increases are on the way, sending out all 19 of its policy board members with "trumpets and megaphones," Yellen said.
Employment has taken a back seat in the market's deliberations about rate policy recently, but Poole and Yellen said payrolls are growing at a reasonable pace with the jobless rate likely to fall from the current 5.4 percent.
"Labor market conditions will continue to improve and monthly employment gains will probably exceed by a comfortable margin the roughly 125,000 per month necessary to keep the unemployment rate constant," Poole said.
He was less sure the U.S. could return to the monthly payroll gains of 200,000 or more per month logged during the last two business cycle expansions.
Yellen said U.S. job gains in 2004 had not been "fantastic" but that the labor market was on a track to gradually eliminate resource slack.
(Additional reporting by Wayne Cole in New York and Paul Simao in Tupelo, Mississippi)