Yellen vows to put focus on jobs, stability

WASHINGTON (Reuters) Federal Reserve Vice Chair Janet Yellen, President Barack Obama’s pick to lead the US central bank, said on Wednesday that strengthening the economic recovery and boosting employment would be priorities if she is confirmed as Fed leader.

Yellen, an advocate of the central bank’s aggressive actions to stimulate economic growth through low interest rates and large-scale bond purchases, would replace Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, whose second term ends on Jan. 31.

The nomination would put Yellen on course to be the first woman to lead the institution and the first to head a central bank in any Group of Seven industrial nation.

At a White House ceremony where Obama announced her nomination, Yellen said she would promote maximum employment, stable prices, and a sound financial system as the top US central banker and noted there was more to do to ensure people who were out of work could find jobs.

“While we have made progress, we have farther to go. The mandate of the Federal Reserve is to serve all the American people, and too many Americans still can’t find a job and worry how they’ll pay their bills and provide for their families,” the 67-year-old former professor said.

Yellen will provide continuity with the policies the Bernanke-led Fed has pursued, and is likely to move cautiously in reining in the extensive monetary stimulus the central bank put in place to shore up the world’s largest economy.

Her fealty to the extraordinary policy tactics the Fed employed in an effort to beat back the 2007-2009 recession and spur faster job growth concerns some Republican who fear the measures will unleash inflation or fuel asset bubbles.

Despite such opposition, Yellen has strong support from fellow Democrats and is expected to be confirmed by the Senate.

The US central bank has held interest rates near zero since late 2008. It has also roughly quadrupled its balance sheet to about $3.7 trillion through three rounds of massive bond purchases to press down longer-term borrowing costs.

While analysts said Yellen’s policy approach should be supportive for stock markets that have come to rely on easy money from the Fed, the market reaction on Wednesday did not provide a clear read on investor sentiment.