at this point I see the US economy as
performing well domestic spending has
been growing at a solid pace our trade
performance net exports is soft but the
committee judged in October that some of
the downside risks had diminished
relating to global economic and
financial developments I see under
utilization of labor resources is having
diminished significantly since earlier
in the year although recently we've seen
some slowdown in the pace of job gains
recently so with that sort of backdrop
in mind and of course inflation i should
say is as you mentioned running
considerably below our two percent
objective nevertheless the committee
judges that an important reason for that
relate to the clines and energy prices
and the prices of non energy imports and
that as those matters stabilize that
inflation will move back up to our two
percent target so with that sort of
economic backdrop in mind the committee
indicated in our lat most recent
statement that we thought it could be
appropriate to adjust rates at our next
meeting now no decision at all has been
made on that and what it will depend on
is the committee's assessment of the
economic outlook at that time and that
assessment will be informed by all of
the data that we receive between now and
then so what the committee has been
expecting is that the economy will
continue to grow at a pace that's
sufficient to generate further
improvements in the labor market and to
return inflation to our two percent
target over the medium
and if the incoming information supports
that expectation then our statement
indicates the December would be a life
possibility but importantly that we've
made no decision about it now it is as
you asked about the timing of such a
move the committee does feel that moving
in a timely fashion if the data and the
outlook justify such a move is a prudent
thing to do because we will be able to
move in a more gradual and measured pace
we fully expect that the economy will
involve in such a way that we can move
at a very gradual pace and of course
after we do so we will be watching very
carefully whether our expectations or
realize so when my colleague governor
Brainard mentions that inflation is low
if we were to move say in December it
would be based on an expectation which i
believe is justified that with an
improving labor market and transitory
factors fading that inflation will move
up to two percent but of course if we
were to move we would need to verify
over time that expectation was being
realized and if not to just adjust
policy appropriately I think I'd also
like to emphasize that I know there's a
great deal of focus on the initial move
it's been a long time that interest
rates have been at zero but markets in
the public should be thinking about the
entire path of policy rates over time
and the committee's expectation is that
that will be a very gradual path and of
course will depend very much on the
actual performance of the economy