ECONOMISTS BELIEVE BIDEN WILL REAPPOINT POWELL AS FED CHAIR

U.S. President Joe Biden will reappoint current Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, shown, for a second four-year term starting February next year, according to an overwhelming majority of economists polled by Reuters this week. Powell took office from Janet Yellen as chair of the Board of Governors of the Fed in February 2018 and has had to manoeuvre the economy through its worst crisis since the Second World War, battered by the COVID-19 pandemic which started early last year. The White House will decide in coming months whether it wants Powell to remain but any decision to replace him could flare market reaction just as the U.S. economy is battling high inflation and employment activity is lagging the overall recovery. Ninety per cent of economists, or 36 of 40, said Biden would choose the status quo.