Janet Yellen to give debut speech at Jackson Hole monetary policy forum
The annual American monetary policy gathering in Jackson Hole, Wyoming will get underway this week, Janet Yellen’s first as chair of the US Federal Reserve.
The events, which begin on Thursday, are centred on the topic of “re-evaluating labour market dynamics” this year.
The Federal Reserve chair typically gives a speech on the Friday morning of the conference, which Yellen could use to drive the central bank’s policy agenda – but most analysts expect little in terms of public announcements to come from this week’s meeting.
“We expect the only hiking talk will be on the trails,” said Ethan Harris of Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
Harris argued that Yellen and her predecessor, Ben Bernanke, had sought to emphasise the Fed’s policymaking committee as a whole, and dominate it less as individuals.
However, Paul Ashworth of Capital Economics suggests that more interesting conversations may be happening behind the scenes.
“Although not on the official Jackson Hole programme, we wouldn’t be surprised if officials took the opportunity to hold further discussions about potential changes to the Fed’s exit strategy,” he said.
The Fed is currently tapering the US quantitative easing (QE) programme, and there is increasing discussion of when the central bank may decide to begin raising interest rates.