Federal Reserve chair says she's not going anywhere
WASHINGTON — Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen appears unruffled by incoming President Donald Trump’s victory last week.
Her remarks to Congress Thursday suggest the central bank is on track to raise interest rates at its meeting in December, one month before Trumps takes office. She said she has no plans to step down before her four-year term ends in early 2018, reiterated the Fed’s political independence and vigorously defended tougher bank regulations established in the wake of the financial crisis.
An improving U.S. economy has bolstered the case for raising interest rates, Yellen told Congress’ Joint Economic Committee. Economic data since Fed policymakers gathered in early November reinforced her view that the economy is making progress toward the Fed’s goals on employment and inflation. She said that at the meeting, she and her colleagues believed that the case for a rate increase “had continued to strengthen and that such an increase could well become appropriate relatively soon.”
Analysts viewed Yellen’s comments as an effort to put financial markets on notice that a rate hike is likely to occur at the Fed’s last meeting of the year on Dec. 13-14.
Asked whether it might be better to push back a move until January, Yellen said that uncertainty surrounding Trump’s proposals for tax cuts and infrastructure spending could well last for a good deal longer than one month.
