VOA常速英语2014--US Fed on Track to Reduce Monthly Bond Purchases 美联储将继续缩减每月债券购买额（在线收听）

US Fed on Track to Reduce Monthly Bond Purchases 美联储将继续缩减每月债券购买额

The U.S. central bank is on pace to reduce its monthly bond purchases by another $10 billion - and interest rates will remain near record lows until the job market approaches something closer to normal.  So says Janet Yellen, who held her first news conference Wednesday as head of the U.S. Federal Reserve.

美国中央银行又一次缩减每月债券购买额100亿美元。在工作市场趋近于正常之前，利率将一直维持在历史最低。珍妮特·耶伦就任美国联邦储备系统首领之职后，上周四举办了她的第一次新闻发布会。

There’s a new Fed chief in town - but in terms of monetary policy, there's very little difference between Janet Yellen and her predecessor, Ben Bernanke.  Despite her new responsibilities, the former central bank vice chair says don’t expect any surprises.

新一任联邦首脑上任，就货币政策而言，珍妮特·耶伦和她的前任本·伯南特并没有太多差别。除了她新的责任外，曾担任中央银行副主席的耶伦表示并不要期望会有特大惊喜。

“In terms of the conduct of business, it’s pretty much the same as usual.  I’m not envisioning, nor have there been so far, any radical changes in how the Federal Reserve does its business," said Yellen.

“就贸易的开展而言，和从前是一样的，我并没有考虑，至少到目前为止没有考虑，联邦储备可以彻底地改变贸易。”耶伦表示。

That includes winding down the bank’s accommodative policies that have kept interest rates near record lows.  This means monthly bond purchases will drop another $10 billion next month to $55 billion a month.

这也包括逐步缩减银行的宽松政策，将利率慢慢降低至历史最低水平，这表示债券交易额将在下个月再降低100亿美元至550亿美元/月。

The one notable change is the committee's decision to stop using a threshold level of 6.5 percent unemployment to decide when to start raising rates.

一个明显的变化是美联储决定不再依据6.5%的失业率的门槛来决定提高利率的时机。

“Even after employment and inflation are near mandate consistent levels, economic conditions may, for some time, warrant keeping short-term interest rates below levels the committee views as normal in the long run," said Yellen.

“即使就业和通货膨胀接近了一致的要求水平，也有可能要求经济状态在短期内维持在美联储视为长期发展的正常水平之下。”耶伦表示。

Instead, steady job growth and a target level of 2 percent inflation will determine the pace of interest rate appreciation.

因此，稳定的就业增长和2个百分点的膨胀目标位决定了利率的增值。

Mark Hamrick is Washington bureau chief at Bankrate.com.

马克·哈姆雷是银率网的华盛顿区主席.

“It’s an acknowledgment that 6.5 percent as a target was not perfect, because we know in the past that we’ve seen the unemployment rate decline for the wrong reasons," said  Hamrick.

他表示，“众所周知，6.5个百分点的目标并不是最佳，因为我们知道过去看到的失业率下降，是由很多错误原因导致的。哈姆雷称。

At 6.7 percent - U.S. unemployment is close to a five-year low, but, Yellen says unusually bad weather in January and February has made assessing the underlying economy especially challenging.

现在的6.7个百分点失业率接近了美国5年的最低历史，然而，耶伦表示，一月和二月的恶劣天气对评估潜在的经济造成了冲击。