Fed Chair Powell said that the central bank “wouldn’t hesitate” to adjust the pace at which it reduces its balance sheet if market problems arise.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said Friday that the central bank “wouldn’t hesitate” to adjust how quickly it lets its balance sheet shrink if it starts to cause problems in financial markets.
“We don’t believe that our issuance is an important part of the story of the market turbulence that began in the fourth quarter of last year. But, I’ll say again, if we reached a different conclusion, we wouldn’t hesitate to make a change,” he said. “If we came to the view that the balance sheet normalization plan — or any other aspect of normalization — was part of the problem, we wouldn’t hesitate to make a change.”
Powell spoke Friday at the American Economic Association and Allied Social Science Association annual meeting in Atlanta, Georgia.
