Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen. Yellen revived talk of possible US
rate increase later this year during a speech at the University of
Massachusetts, Amherst on September 24, 2015. PHOTO | AFP
US Federal Reserve chief Janet Yellen said
Thursday that she still expects to increase interest rates in 2015 and
that concerns about weaker global growth likely will not affect that
plan.
Yellen said improvements in the US economy "will likely entail an initial increase in the federal funds rate later this year."
POOR GLOBAL GROWTH
Policymakers
will continue to monitor weaker activity overseas, she said, but the
impact will probably not be "large enough to have a significant effect
on the path for policy," she said in a speech at the University of
Massachusetts, Amherst.
Yellen's
remarks came a week after the US central bank opted at a widely
anticipated meeting against enacting the first rate hike since the
financial crisis of 2008.
CAPITAL FLIGHT
Following
the September 17 meeting, Yellen told a press conference that the
committee decided to hold off due to worries about slowing growth in
China and capital flight from emerging markets.
But in Thursday's speech, Yellen said policymakers were still "monitoring developments abroad" but did not think they would derail the US economy.
"Prospects
for the US economy generally appear solid," said Yellen, citing monthly
job gains averaging round 210,000 and other data showing the economy
has been expanding.
"My colleagues
and I, based on our most recent forecasts, anticipate that this pattern
will continue and that labor market conditions will improve further as
we head into 2016."
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