U.S. Federal Reserve Former Chairman Alan Greenspan said Friday the Fed will have to tighten monetary policy to put a brake on inflation and said the worst of the U.S. credit crisis may have passed.
Growing inflationary pressures have led the U.S. central bank to recently shift to more aggressive anti-inflation rhetoric, and expectations are rising that policymakers will raise benchmark U.S. interest rates within months.
"If you're going to keep inflation rates down ... the Federal Reserve is going to have to put increasing pressure on the money supply and reserves, and as a result we're going to see interest rates rising," Greenspan said via video link to an event in Mexico.
Soaring gasoline prices helped drive up the U.S. consumer price index in May at the fastest rate in six months, the government said on Friday, although "core" prices, excluding food and energy, remained tame.
Greenspan, who attained almost cult status for his insight into financial markets as head of the U.S. central bank, said weakness in financial markets probably peaked in March but that it was hard to say how long the crisis would would last.
"It can struggle along for a while. It could get worse, it could get better," he said.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/25147970

Growing inflationary pressures have led the U.S. central bank to recently shift to more aggressive anti-inflation rhetoric, and expectations are rising that policymakers will raise benchmark U.S. interest rates within months.
"If you're going to keep inflation rates down ... the Federal Reserve is going to have to put increasing pressure on the money supply and reserves, and as a result we're going to see interest rates rising," Greenspan said via video link to an event in Mexico.
Soaring gasoline prices helped drive up the U.S. consumer price index in May at the fastest rate in six months, the government said on Friday, although "core" prices, excluding food and energy, remained tame.
Greenspan, who attained almost cult status for his insight into financial markets as head of the U.S. central bank, said weakness in financial markets probably peaked in March but that it was hard to say how long the crisis would would last.
"It can struggle along for a while. It could get worse, it could get better," he said.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/25147970
