Fed Chairman’s Talk Doesn’t Signal Rate Hike

Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan provided an upbeat assessment of the U.S. economy without signaling any change in interest rates, according to eight bankers who heard him speak at a banking conference. Greenspan called the U.S. labor market “remarkably resilient” during a question-and-answer session with the central bank chiefs from Germany, France, Britain and Austria at the International Monetary Conference, one of the bankers said. The eight bankers interviewed after the closed-door conference in Vienna, all of whom spoke on the condition that they not be named, said they didn’t come away with a message that Greenspan was signaling a change in U.S. interest rate policy.