highlights Ben Bernanke speech on U.S. economic outlook in Minnesota september 8 2011 ; The following are highlights of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's speech on the economic outlook before the Economic Club of Minnesota on Thursday.
ON EMPLOYING A RANGE OF TOOLS
"In addition to refining our forward guidance, the Federal Reserve has a range of tools that could be used to provide additional monetary stimulus. We discussed the relative merits and costs of such tools at our August meeting. My FOMC colleagues and I will continue to consider those and other pertinent issues, including, of course, economic and financial developments, at our meeting in September and are prepared to employ these tools as appropriate to promote a stronger economic recovery in a context of price stability."
ON THE FISCAL DRAG ON THE ECONOMY
"The prospect of an increasing fiscal drag on the economy in the face of an already sluggish recovery highlights one of the many difficult tradeoffs currently faced by fiscal policymakers."
ON INFLATION
"We see little indication that the higher rate of inflation experienced so far this year has become ingrained in the economy."
ON ECONOMIC SLACK
"In addition to the stability of longer-term inflation expectations, the substantial amount of resource slack that exists in U.S. labor and product markets should continue to have a moderating influence on inflationary pressures. Notably, because of ongoing weakness in labor demand over the course of the recovery, nominal wage increases have been roughly offset by productivity gains, leaving the level of unit labor costs close to where it had stood at the onset of the recession. Given the large share of labor costs in the production costs of most firms, subdued unit labor costs should be an important restraining influence on inflation. (source /www.reuters.com )
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