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Greenspan Says US Inflation Well Contained
US Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said on Friday that inflation remains well contained and poses no immediate problem for the slowing US economy.
"We think inflation at the moment is very well contained," Greenspan said at a testimony to the US House of Representatives Budget Committee.
"Unless something is happening which we haven't yet captured, pricing restraint is really quite broad and deep," he said, adding that "the problem that we see at this particular point is not an immediate emergence of inflationary pressures."
Analysts believe that Greenspan was suggesting that the Federal Reserve still has ample room to further cut interest rates to prevent the economic slowdown from skidding into a full-blown recession.
The chairman indicated he preferred to keep the world guessing on whether and when to change the interest rates again.
"I hope I was sufficiently ambiguous not to have indicated timing of when or if we would move," he said, referring his testimony to the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee on Wednesday.
It is widely speculated that the Fed may announce a fresh cut on interest rates when its policy-makers meet on March 20.
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