Fed's Powell says US outlook 'remarkably positive'

BOSTON (Oct 3): US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on Tuesday hailed a “remarkably positive outlook” for the US economy that he feels is on the verge of a “historically rare” era of ultra-low unemployment and tame prices for the foreseeable future.

It is a view, he said, based on how a changed economy is operating today, with businesses and households immunized by strong central bank policy from the inflationary psychology that caused unemployment, inflation and interest rates to swing wildly in the 1960s and 1970s.

It is an outlook that includes an economic performance “unique in modern US data,” with unemployment of below 4% expected for at least two more years and inflation remaining modest even as wages rise.

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