MNI TRANSCRIPT: Powell on Accommodative Policy

     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: So I guess the question is this it? Do you considerate it to be an

accommodative enough to now achieve your goal of sustaining the expansion and as

far as global Wall Street's primary question, what kind of change in the economy

would cause you to reassess? Some sort of significant deterioration in what?

     A: What we have said to repeat is we see the current stance of policy as

likely to remain appropriate as long as incoming information about economy

remains consistent. Both perform and of economy and stance of policy.

Performance of economy has been particularly the household sector has been

strong, has been resilient with low unemployment, attractive levels of job

creation, wages moving up, labor force participation moving up and household

confidence and solid gains. The manufacturing sector particularly manufacturing

and also in investment and exports have been weaker. We have seen moderate

growth. We see the outlook as for more of the same and see the risks to the

outlook as perhaps having moved in a positive direction over the course of this

intervening period although some things remain to be seen. That's the economy.

Turning to policy we have moved the stance of policy over the course of to a

more accommodative stance after cuts it is now in a range of one and a half to

one and three-quarters percent. So you ask what it would take to move and as I

mentioned, we are going to be watching all factors. And if developments emerge

that are cause a material reassessment of our outlook we would respond

accordingly. That's what it would take. We will be looking at full range of data

and the risk to outlook and I have given a sense of what our jut look is. It is

for moderate growth, a strong labor market and inflation near 2% objective. If

something happens to cause us to materially reassess that outlook that's what

would cause to change our views on the appropriate stance of policy.

--MNI Washington Bureau; +1 202 371 2121; email: brooke.migdon@marketnews.com

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