MNI TRANSCRIPT: Powell on Future of Rate Cut Cycle

     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: You've talked in this press conference about being data-dependent going

forward, and this is not the start of a series of rate cuts. But the financial

markets seem to think that this is the start of a series of rate cuts, and

they're predicting three or four cuts this year. Is this your effort to try to

damp down that thinking? 

     A: Let me be clear. I said it's not the beginning of a long series of rate

cuts. I didn't say it's just one or anything like that. I said when you think

about rate cutting cycles they go on for a long time. The committee is not

seeing that, not seeing us in that place. You would do that if you saw real

economic weakness and thought the federal funds needed to be cut a lot. That's

not what we're seeing. What we're seeing is that it's appropriate to adjust

policy to a somewhat more accommodative stance over time. And that's how we're

looking at it. What I said was it's not a long cutting cycle, in other words,

referring to what we do when there's a recession or a very severe downturn.

That's really what I was ruling out. I think if you look back at other mid-cycle

adjustments, you'll see -- I don't know that they'll be, comparable or not. But

you'll see examples of these.

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

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