Robin Harding
ft.com
July 17, 2012
Ben Bernanke offered a gloomy outlook for the US economy but the Federal Reserve chairman offered no hint of further monetary easing in testimony to Congress.
“We are looking very carefully at the economy, trying to judge whether or not the loss of momentum we’ve seen recently is enduring, and whether or not the economy is likely to continue to make progress,” he said, warning that progress in reducing a 8.2 per cent unemployment rate “seems likely to be frustratingly slow”.
The testimony disappointed markets – which are on tenterhooks for a signal of further monetary easing from the Fed – with stocks falling and the dollar rising before turning around by midday in New York.
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