MNI TRANSCRIPT: Powell on Dot Plot

     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: does the fed's dot plot still serve a useful communications purpose or

do you feel it might be time to retire it or change it in some fashion?

     A: I think properly understood, it can be useful. But that's been a

challenge. I think properly understood to me means looking at what it is and not

at what it isn't. What it is, is a expression of the thinking about individual

committee members, about appropriate monetary policy and the path of the

economy. Remember that we write all that down and we send it in, and it gets

compiled. But we don't discuss it at the meeting. We don't negotiate. There is

no agreement. There is no plan. Particularly at inflection points, it's hard to

convey the reality, which is that policies are always going to depend on the

economic outlook and changes in the economic outlook. When the economic outlook

is changing, the dots are just not a consideration. We are going to do what we

think is the right thing for the economy. If the fact that dots that we did six

months or three months ago don't agree with that, that is not even in the

conversation. It's more, it can be useful, and I think, but as I said it has

been a challenge. I do like to say, if you focus too much on the dots, you can

miss the broader picture.

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

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