Washington, Sep 1 (IANS) US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has hinted that the central bank might provide further monetary easing steps to improve the US labour market and broader economic recovery.
The stagnation of the US labour market was a “grave concern”, and the US central bank would provide additional policy support as needed to promote a stronger economic growth, Bernanke said Friday while addressing central bankers and economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City Economic Symposium, held in Jackson Hole, the US state of Wyoming.
“The rate of improvement in the labour market has been painfully slow,” Bernanke said at the annual meeting, adding that the US unemployment rate has remained more than 2 percentage points above what most Fed policymakers see as the longer-run normal level.
The jobless rate edged up 0.1 percentage point to 8.3 percent in July from the previous month, figures from the US Labor Department showed.
The US economic recovery was “obviously far from satisfactory”.
At the end of every August, central bankers and economists gather at the high-profile meeting in the Rocky Mountains to discuss global economic developments and monetary policies.
