The leader of the U.S. central bank offered a gloomy perspective on the state of the country’s economic recovery, although he expects growth to improve towards the end of the year, according to The Wall Street Journal. On Tuesday, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said that the U.S. economy is facing “additional headwinds” as it recovers from the financial crisis, and warned, “monetary policy cannot be a panacea.” Nonetheless, the Fed head asserted, “Accommodative monetary policies are still needed.”
In his speech at the International Monetary Conference, Bernanke explained, “Until we see a sustained period of stronger job creation, we cannot consider the recovery to be truly established.” A separate report from the Labor Department showed that there were 3 million job openings at the end of April, which was down from 3.1 million one month earlier, adding to a growing sense that the U.S. economic recovery has slowed somewhat.
Click here to read the story fon Bernanke’s speech from The Wall Street Journal.
Click here for coverage of job openings from The Wall Street Journal.