US fed chief Ben Bernanke at further measures

The head of the US central bank has said that he has not ruled out further action to boost the US economy, BBC reported. "The Federal Reserve will provide additional policy accommodation as needed," said Fed chairman Ben Bernanke in a much-watched speech. In particular, he suggested that the Fed may pump more money into the economy via so-called quantitative easing. Mr Bernanke spoke at an annual conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The Fed calls such measures "asset purchases", where the central bank buys bonds to keep the long-term cost of borrowing down. "As the crisis crested, and with the federal funds rate at its effective lower bound, the FOMC [Federal Open Market Committee] turned to non-traditional policy approaches to support the recovery," Mr Bernanke said.