FOMC Press Conference June 22, 2011

Chairman of the FOMC, Ben S. Bernanke, Washington, D.C.
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Transcript of Chairman Bernanke's Press Conference
June 22, 2011
CHAIRMAN BERNANKE. Good afternoon and welcome.
In my opening remarks today, I'll briefly review today's policy decision. And I'll place
the decision in the context of our economic projections and our policy strategy. I'll then be glad
to take your questions. Throughout today's briefing, my goal will be to reflect the consensus of
the Committee while taking note of the diversity of views, as appropriate. Of course, my
remarks and interpretations are my own responsibility.
As indicated in the policy statement released earlier this afternoon, the Committee
decided today to keep the target range for the federal funds rate at 0 to ¼ percent. The
Committee continues to anticipate that economic conditions-including low rates of resource
utilization and a subdued outlook for inflation in the medium run-are likely to warrant
exceptionally low levels for the federal funds rate for an extended period. The Committee's
planned purchases of $600 billion of longer-term Treasury securities will be completed by the
end of this month, and the Committee will continue to reinvest principal payments from its
securities holdings going forward.
In conjunction with today's meeting, the FOMC participants submitted projections for
economic growth, the unemployment rate, and the inflation rate for the years 2011 to 2013 and
over the longer run. These projections are conditional on each participant's individual
assessment of the appropriate path of monetary policy needed to best promote the Committee's
objectives. I'll focus on the information shown in the figures that have been distributed. In each
figure, the dark area denotes the central tendencies of our current projections, while the lighter
shaded area denotes the full range of projections. The longer-run projections, shown at the right
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of each figure, represent participants' assessments of the rate to which each variable will
converge over time under appropriate monetary policy and assuming no further shocks to the
economy.
The longer-run projections for output growth have a central tendency of 2.5 to
2.8 percent, and the longer-run projections for the unemployment rate have a central tendency of
5.2 to 5.6 percent-the same as in our April projections. These projections may be interpreted as
indicating participants' current estimates of the economy's normal or trend rate of growth and its
normal unemployment rate over the longer run respectively. It should be noted that these
estimates are inherently uncertain and subject to revision, because longer-run rates of economic
growth and unemployment are determined largely by nonmonetary factors that may evolve over
time and that often cannot be directly measured.
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