Jerome Powell to take over Janet Yellen as Fed’s chairman

The Dollar Business Bureau

Jerome Powell will succeed Janet Yellen as the next chairman of the US’ Federal Reserve Bank - the most powerful central bank in the world. The selection of Powell has been confirmed by the US Senate with 84-13 vote with support from both Republicans as well as many Democrats.

Powell, a 64-year-old lawyer, was nominated by President Donald Trump in November last year. He has served on the Federal Reserve’s board since 2012, and would take over when Yellen’s term expires on February 3, 2018.

Yellen, the present chairman of Federal Reserve, was selected in 2014 by President Barack Obama and has been the first woman to be appointed on the position.

Powell was seen as a safe choice by President Trump, who would provide stability to the prevailing US monetary policies and not impact the markets.

Powell has been in support of slowly increasing interest rates and of the favour that the Federal Reserve should gradually cut down its asset holdings that are gathered as part of the efforts to cope with the financial crisis.

Under the stewardship of current chair Yellen, the world’s largest economy has witnessed its strongest economic activity in six months since 2014.

According to recent official figures released in December, the US economy grew at a rate of 3.2% annually in the third quarter of 2017. In the previous quarter, it grew at 3.1%.

The growth target of President Trump has been 3%, but he has said that his desire is to see the growth of US economy at a rate as high as 6%.