WASHINGTON, Oct. 28 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Federal Reserve is running out of monetary policy ammunition and more fiscal aid is needed to sustain the economic recovery, a former senior Fed official said Wednesday.
"No central bank wants to admit that it's out of firepower. Unfortunately, the U.S. Federal Reserve is very near that point," Bill Dudley, former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and a senior research scholar at Princeton University's Center for Economic Policy Studies, wrote in a Bloomberg opinion column.
"Even if the Fed did more -- much more -- it would not provide much additional support to the economy. Interest rates are already about as low as they can go, and financial conditions are extremely accommodative," Dudley wrote.
The former Fed official noted that the low interest rate policy could become "counterproductive" if left in place for too long.
"In the U.S., monetary stimulus has already pushed bond and stock prices to such high levels that future returns will necessarily be lower," Dudley wrote, adding that people will have to save more to meet their objectives, leaving less money to spend.
"Even if people don't save now, low returns will eventually take a toll. State and local pension funds, for example, will fall even shorter of what's need to cover their obligations," he wrote.
Dudley suggested that Fed officials should make it abundantly clear that monetary policy can provide "only limited additional support" to the economy.
"It's up to legislators and the White House to give the economy what it needs -- and right now, that means considerably greater fiscal stimulus," he argued.
However, congressional lawmakers and the Trump administration have reached a deadlock over the next COVID-19 relief package. With just five days left before Election Day, it is unlikely for Congress to pass any relief package before the presidential election.
Economists, as well as Federal Reserve officials, have repeatedly argued that more fiscal relief is needed to sustain the economic recovery, warning of dire consequences if further fiscal support is not provided in time.
The Fed last month kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged at the record-low level of near zero and signaled maintaining this target range until at least 2023, noting that the path of the economy will depend significantly on the course of the coronavirus.
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