Reuters (11/19/13) Alister Bull

Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, says the Fed will maintain its easy monetary policy until it is certain that labor market improvements will continue. Bernanke notes that the economy has made progress, but maintains that it still is not where the Fed would like it to be.

“The [Federal Open Market Committee] still expects that labor market conditions will continue to improve and that inflation will move toward the 2% objective over the medium term. If these views are supported by incoming information, the FOMC will likely begin to moderate the pace of [bond] purchases,” he says.