Reuters | Low inflation and high unemployment in the United States justify the
Federal Reserve keeping benchmark interest rates ultra-low for “quite
some time”, Chicago Fed President Charles Evans said on Tuesday.

“We have a little bit more risk with the European situation; the [U.S.] outlook looks good but not so strong as to reduce the unemployment rate very quickly; I don’t see inflationary pressures at the moment,” Evans told business leaders in Chicago in response to an audience question.

“So I think we will continue to have an accommodative policy stance for quite some time,” he said.

Evans, who is not a voter on the Fed’s policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee this year, reiterated that the Fed’s pledge to keep rates low for “an extended period” means about six months to him.