Bernanke: US economy 'close to faltering'

clock

US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke has told Congress the US economy is "close to faltering" and more action may be needed.

Markets responded positively as the head of the Fed said he was "prepared to take further action as appropriate" to bolster the recovery, the BBC reports. His comments come after the Fed already decided to shift $400bn of investments into longer-term government debt. Bernanke said Operation Twist was the equivalent of a half-percentage-point cut in interest rates, and gave a "meaningful, but not an enormous support to the economy". But he warned the eurozone debt crisis, as well as overly hasty spending cuts by the federal government, risked undermining the US recovery. Bernanke...

To continue reading this article...

Join Investment Week for free

  • Unlimited access to real-time news, analysis and opinion from the investment industry, including the Sustainable Hub covering fund news from the ESG space
  • Get ahead of regulatory and technological changes affecting fund management
  • Important and breaking news stories selected by the editors delivered straight to your inbox each day
  • Weekly members-only newsletter with exclusive opinion pieces from leading industry experts
  • Be the first to hear about our extensive events schedule and awards programmes

Join now

 

Already an Investment Week
member?

Login

More on Economics

Trustpilot