NEW YORK (MaceNews) – Chicago Fed President Charles Evans suggested Wednesday he is in no rush to reassess the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy and the burden remains on fiscal policy to support the recovery.
Asked by reporters whether likely delay in federal fiscal support would prompt the Fed to consider new measures to bolster the economy, Evans responded, “It’s still early.”
“Fiscal policy or not, this is a recovery that is still most amenable to some kind of fiscal relief, grants that fiscal policy normally is able to do,” he said.
“Monetary policy might be able to facilitate somewhat more borrowing, lending, but even that is real challenging in the current environment.”
Evans said by the spring he will have a better sense of how the employment market and other aspects of the recovery are going. At that time, the Fed may also consider providing more detail on the course of its large-scale asset purchase program, he said.
For now, with interest rates are low and credit spreads narrower, Evans suggested there is no immediate need to adjust its asset purchase program or make other changes. ”It’s probably going to be the spring until I have a better sense,” he said.
Asked by Mace News about a slowdown in the employment market evident in the September jobs report, Evans said he was “very nervous” about permanent job losses and worried that it will be a “longer slog” for people to find work comparable to their old positions.
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