MNI TRANSCRIPT: Powell on 25BP Rate Cut

     WASHINGTON (MNI) - The following is the portion of a transcript from

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell's press conference after the FOMC meeting

Wednesday:

     Q: Per your statement here, I guess the question is, is there any reason to

believe that a 25 basis point cut is going to be sufficient to expediently

return inflation to your 2% target? And if not, what are you going to be looking

at to convince you that you need to cut rates again? What is the hurdle? 

     A: You have to look at not just the 25-point basis cut, but look at the

actions over the year. As I noted, we started off expecting some rate increases.

We moved to a patient setting for a few months. Now we've moved here. What

you've seen over the course of the year, as we've moved to more accommodating

policy the economy has performed about as expected with that gradually

increasing support. I wouldn't take credit for all of that. But I think

increasing policy has kept the economy on track and kept the outlook favorable.

In terms of the rest of your question, the committee is really thinking of this

as a way of adjusting policy to a somewhat more accommodative stance to further

the three objectives that I mentioned -- to ensure against downside risks, to

provide support to the economy, that those factors are pushing down on economic

growth, then to support inflation. We do think it will serve those goals. We're

thinking of it in the nature of a mid-cycle adjustment to policy.

--MNI Washington Bureau; tel: +1 202-371-2121; email: kevin.kastner@marketnews.com

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