Bernanke downplays inflation risk of QE3

Worst thing Fed could do would be to hike rates prematurely

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke played down fears on Monday from some more hawkish central bankers and investors that the Fed’s bond-buying program will lead to higher inflation.

“I don’t believe significant inflation is going to be the result of any of this,” Bernanke said in a speech at the University of Michigan. 

The Fed will watch closely to see whether the zero-interest rate policy that has been in place for four years could eventually lead investors to make unwise decisions, creating an asset bubble, he added.

Bernanke also said there is a continuing debate over whether Fed policy is a cause of asset bubbles. The Fed has an “open mind” on the issue, he remarked, and will continue to monitor markets and toughen bank supervision to guard against financial instability. 

But the worst thing for the central bank to do would be “to raise interest rates prematurely,” according to Bernanke. 

At their meeting in December, the Fed boosted its stimulus program by adding $45 billion of monthly Treasury purchases to an existing program to buy $40 billion in mortgage-backed securities a month.

Last week, several Fed officials expressed their concerns over the central bank’s loose policy. Read: Fed hawks get their day in the sun. 

Kansas City Fed Bank President Esther George noted that prices of assets such as bonds, agricultural land and high-yield and leveraged loans were at historically high levels.

In addition, Richmond Fed President Jeffrey Lacker dissented from all eight Fed policy statements in 2012, saying that the central bank might be undermining its ability to control inflation.