Jerome powell announced that Interest Rates will remain near zero for the foreseeable future in order to support Economic Growth following the coronavirus pandemic. This is conference runs one hour. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us. Hour. Our country continues to face a difficult and challenging time as a pandemic is causing tremendous hardship in the United States and around the world. People have lost loved ones and many millions have lost their jobs and there is great uncertainty about the future. At the Federal Reserve, we are strongly committed to using our tools to do whatever we can and for as long as it takes to provide some relief instability to ensure the recovery will be a strong as possible and to limit lasting damage to the economy. T lasting damage to the economy. The most important response to the crisis has come from a healthcare workers and on behalf of the Federal Reserve look me express our dedicated individuals who put themselves at risk day after day and service to others and to our nation. Let me also think the essential workers across the country who have helped meet our basic needs for goods and services during these difficult times. The virus in the forceful measures taken to control have a sharp decline in Economic Activity in search of job losses. Indicators of spending and production plummeted in april and the declined gdp in the Current Quarter is likely to be the most severe on record. Even after the unexpected positively unemployment report, nearly 20 million jobs have been lost on net since february and the Unemployment Rate has risen about ten Percentage Points to 13point to . As its highlighted by the bureau of labor statistics, this figure likely understates that employment accounting for the unusually large workers who reported themselves as a play babson from their jobs would raise the on appointment rate by about three Percentage Points. The downturn has not fallen equally on all americans and those least able to shoulder the burden have been most effective. In particular the rise and joblessness has been especially severe for lower wage workers, women and for africanamerican hispanics. In recent weeks some indicators suggest the modest rebound in segments of the economy such as Retail Merchandise and automobiles. Employment rose and many sectors in the employment edge down as some workers returned to their jobs from temporary layoffs. With the easing of social distancing across the country people are increasingly moving about in many read business is resuming to various degrees. At the seam time many households have got to be as payments and unemployment which are supporting incomes and spending. Activity in many parts of the economy has yet to pick up and overall has put us far below earlier levels. Moreover despite the improvement of the jobs report unemployment remains historically high. Weak demand especially in sectors most affected by the pandemic is holding down consumer prices. As a result inflation has fallen below are symmetric 2 objective. Indicators of longerterm Inflation Expectation have been fairly steady. The extent of the downturn in recovery remain uncertain and will depend in large part on our success and containing the virus. We all want to get back to normal but a full recovery is unlikely to occur until people are confident that its safe to reengage and a broad range of activities. The severity of the downturn will depend on the policy actions at all levels of government to provide relief and support the recovery of the Public Health crisis passing. The feds response is guided by our mandate to promote maximum employment as stable prices for the American People along with a responsible lease to promote the stability of the Financial System. We are committed to using our full range of tools to support the economy in the challenging time. In march we quickly lowered our policy Interest Rate to near 0 where we expect to keep it until we are confident that the economy is weathered recent events, on track to achieve our goals, weve also been taking broad and forceful actions to support the flow of credit in the economy. Without access to credit, families can be forced to cut back on necessities or lose their homes, businesses can be forced to downsize or close resulting in further losses of jobs and income in worsening the downturn. Preserving the flow of credit is essential for mitigating the damage to the economy and setting the stage for the recovery. Since march weve been purchasing sizable quantities of treasury and mortgagebacked securities in order to support the smooth functioning of these markets which are vital to the flow of credit in the economy. Our ongoing purchases have helped to restore Market Conditions and have fostered more financial conditions. As market functioning is approve census drains experience in march, we have gradually reduce the pace of these purchases to sustain smooth market functioning and thereby foster the effective transmission of Monetary Policy to broader financial conditions, we will increase our holdings of treasury and agency mortgagebacked security in coming months at least at the current pace. We will closely monitor developments and are prepared to adjust her plans as appropriate to support our goals. The Federal Reserve is undertaking programs to provide stability to the Financial System and to more directly support the flow of the credit in the economy for households and businesses of all sizes and state and local governments. These programs benefit the economy by providing financing which is other not wise available for in addition by serving as a backstop to keep credit markets the programs can increase the willingness of private lenders to extend credit, many of these programs rely on emergency lending powers that are available only in very unusual circumstances such as these we find yourselves in today. We are deploying these lending powers to an unprecedented extent enabled in large part by financial backing and support by congress and the treasury. And we will use these powers forcefully, proactively and aggressively until were confident that were solidly on the road to recovery. When the time comes after the crisis has passed we will put these emergency tools back in the toolbox. I would stress that these are lending powers, not spending powers, the fed cannot grant money to particular beneficiaries, we can only pray programs for facilities with broadbased eligibility to make loans to solve entities with the expectation that the loans will be repaid. Many borrowers will benefit from these programs as with the overall economy but for many others getting a loan that may be difficult to repay may not be the answer. In these cases direct support may be needed elected officials have the power to spend and make decisions about where we as a society should julie enter direct our collective resources. They provide direct help to people and businesses in communities. This direct support can make a critical difference not just in helping families and businesses at a time of need but also in limiting longlasting damage to our economy. At this meeting my colleagues and i continue our discussion of approaches for conducting Monetary Policy when the federal funds rate is that is lower bound. The measures we discussed included bullis it forms of Forward Guidance and asset purchases prereuses in the aftermath of the goebel financial crisis and they have become a standard part of our toolkit. We also reviewed the historical and foreign experience with targeting Interest Rates along the yield curve. It would usefully complement our main tools remains an open question. We will continue our discussion and upcoming meetings and our Monetary Policy stance income indication as more information about the trajectory of the economy becoming available. We also resumed our regularly Quarterly Economic projection or the sep. The sep is an input into our deliberations, not an outcome. It does not represent a committee view. Rather f moc purchase event write down the individual views of the most likely path for the economy condition on each position view of the Monetary Policy. We tabulate the submissions and republish them as sep. Given the unusually high level of and certainty about the outlook many participants noted they see a number of reasonably path for the economy and is not possible to identify with confidence a single path as the most likely one. Nonetheless, we believe that regular publication of the sep provides a useful perspective on the way participants of the path ahead. But the june sep shows a general expectation of an economic recovery beginning in the second half of this year end lasting over the next couple of years supported by Interest Rates that remain at the current level near 0. Of course my colleagues and i will continue to base their policy decisions on the full range of possible outcomes and not an approved enter particular forecast. The Risk Management approach is the best way we can promote our maximum employment and stability goals in these unusually uncertain circumstances. Finally i want to acknowledge the tragic events that have begin put a spotlight on Racial Injustice in this country. The Federal Reserve serves the entire nation, we operate in and are part of many of the communities across the country where americans are grappling with in expressing themselves on issues of racial equality. I speak for my colleagues throughout the Federal Reserve system when i say theres no place of the Federal Reserve for racism and there should be no place for in our society. Everyone deserves opportunity to participate fully in our society and in our economy. These principles guide us in all that we do for Monetary Policy to focus on diversity and inclusion, our workplace into our work to ensure fair access to credit across the country. We will take this opportunity to renew rfid staff commitment to these principles. We understand that the work of the fed touches communities, families and businesses across the country, everything that we do is in service to republic mission, we are committed to using our full range of tools to support the economy and help assure the recovery from the difficult period will be as robust as possible. Thank you, i look forward to her questions. To the first question. Thank you, chair powell, the wall street journal, i want to ask about the economic projection and i realize that these are more of an educated guess and they suggest the Committee Sees quite a large output gap over the next two years and the committee did not take any steps to reinforce your Forward Guidance. My questions are first, what are you hoping to learn, how might that change your response and third, how close is the committee to reaching a decision on a more concrete Forward Guidance and whether yield caps might reinforce that guidance . First i would say we think Monetary Policy today is wellpositioned to support the economy in this challenging time. If we didnt think that of course we would change her policy now. As you know we lowered her policy rate very quickly, quickly than others and we said we will keep it there until the economy has weathered the effects of the virus and on track to achieve our goals. You can see in the dog plot as i think you pointed out the overwhelmingly the participants expect as a baseline expectation no rate increase at least through 2022 and if you look at surveys and forecasters are market produce reports, Financial Market prices et cetera, those reflect rates at the effective lower bound. The first thing is Monetary Policy is in a good place and well understood in the markets. Secondly, we have also taken strong mangers to support the flow of credit in the economy as a mansion and were continuing asset prices in coming months at a relatively high level. For all of those reasons we feel like policy is now in a good place. As we look ahead we see a path ahead for the economy is highly uncertain and depends on a significant degree on the path of the pendant. At this meeting we looked at some debt at Forward Guidance and asset purchases, we look carefully at those and received a briefing on historical experience with yield curve control. We will continue those discussions and upcoming meetings and evaluate our stance and communication as more information about trajectory of the economy becomes available. I would just say in terms of what were looking for, we expect to get a better understanding of the economies trajectory in particular how we should best deploy those tools to achieve those goals. So that is really what were looking to achieve an educated see were actively at work on that. Next gino. High chair powell, thank you so much particular question. I am curious about your inflation across the forecast and given how well you see inflation in the upcoming years, why is policy appropriate now and how do you think of it currently and if you could talk a little bit about what urgency you see in turning back to the 2 target . Current policy stance is appropriate. Remember were using our emergency 133 lending tools to an impressive extent and we said we wont go any lower than this and that were prepared to adjust as appropriate and rates are at the effective lower bound. So we have all of our tools in use in a strong way and what were waiting for is to learn more. If you look at the may employment report, it is a pretty good data surprised that anybody can remember, it is a pretty good illustration of how uncertain these times are. The economy is reopening and we will learn a whole lot about the path of the economy in the next incoming months, that is really what were looking for. In terms of inflation, you will know that we had a 128 month expansion and we never did quite get inflation back to 2 on a symmetric sustained basis. We got close for the last couple of years but we never did quite get there. I think we have to be humble about our ability to move inflation in particular when an appointment is going to be above most estimates of a natural rate above the median in our sep past the end of 2022. I think were in the right place now, we are working carefully, as we learn more and better understand in their path of the economy, we will be assessing what is the best way to to deploy all of our tools to achieve our goals in the best possible way and ill say again, the main report was a welcome surprise, very please, we hope we get many more like it. I think we have to be honest, its a long road depending on how you count it, well more than 20 Million People displaced in the labor market, it will take some time and we are going to be deploying our tools, all of our tools to the full extent to pursuit those goals, however, long it takes. Steve pgh thank you, mr. Chairman. I think i understand how the fed might react in the event that things come out worse than expected, i think i dont understand of things come up other than expected. How is the commitment to lower Interest Rates and if things end up better, you stick with a low interestrate as you projected them and for example unemployment or inflation that is animating, what are those numbers that you are looking for that might cause you to change the policy as is now projected. We just had a period of unemployment well before 4 that lasted two years and during that period of time we saw a lot of great things happening in the labor market and things you love to get back to, we did not see any problems with twice inflation it did not really react much. We would be looking to get inflation back up and be prepared to tolerate pretty low and welcome very low readings on employment based on what we saw in the last expansion. Again we are not thinking about raising rates, were not thinking about thinking about raising rates. What were thinking about is providing support for this economy and we do think this is going to take some time, mor mot forecasters believe that, this would be great if we got a whole bunch more months of job creation, notwithstanding that, there is a lot of people that are unemployed and it seems quite likely they will be a Significant Group and even after a long growth though still be struggling to find jobs and will still be providing strong accommodation for that. Thanks very much chair powell. There have been plenty of comparisons with the Great Depression of the 1930s, is that scenario and looking at a more traditional session and are you at all concerned that the Strong Performance of the stock market in the last few weeks is disconnected to the stark reality. I think the Great Depression is a great example or likely outcome or model for what is happening here, there are just so many fundamental differences, first the government response has been so fast and so forceful that the origin in economy in a healthy place and of course every economy has a longer run challenge and that includes our economy notwithstanding a 50 year low in unemployment and the longest expansion of her history in every reason they could continue. That is different from what was happening around the time of when the depression started, the Financial System was in ver