fed flexible on bond buying: bernanke

Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke said today the US central bank still expects to start scaling back its massive bond purchase programme later this year, but he left open the option of changing that plan if the economic outlook shifted.

fed flexible on bond buying: bernanke

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Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke said on Wednesday the US central bank still expects to start scaling back its massive bond purchase programme later this year, but he left open the option of changing that plan if the economic outlook shifted.

While sticking closely to a time line to wind down the bond buying that he first outlined last month, Bernanke told Congress nothing was set in stone.

“Our asset purchases depend on economic and financial developments, but they are by no means on a preset course,” he said. The remarks pushed up US stock futures and government bondprices, while the dollar softened against the euro and the yen.