Janet Yellen To Deliver Semi-Annual Testimony And Grilling By Congress On Tuesday

Janet Yellen will face her first grilling on Tuesday by Congress since becoming chairwoman of the Federal Reserve, USA Today reported.

Yellen is scheduled to deliver her semi-annual testimony on monetary policy before the House Financial Services Committee on Tuesday and the Senate Banking Committee on Thursday, according to USA Today.

Yellen, 67, became the first woman to lead the Fed on Feb. 1, succeeding Ben Bernanke, who stepped down after helping lead the nation's recovery from the 2008 financial crisis. Yellen was previously the Fed's vice chair, USA Today reported.

Yellen is viewed as more concerned about promoting job growth and less worried about risks such as high inflation than Bernanke, according to USA Today. She's likely to face tough questions from Republicans about whether she'll retreat from plans to pare back the Fed's massive monthly bondbuying, which is intended to hold down interest rates and spur economic and job growth.

In announcing Tuesday 's hearing, Financial Services Committee chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, said: "By lowering the borrowing costs of the federal government, the Fed has helped the Obama administration finance nearly $7 trillion in new debt since 2009. At the same time, the Federal Reserve has been buying trillions of dollars of U.S. Treasury securities, swelling its balance sheet to an unheard of $4 trillion - four times the size of its pre-crisis level," USA Today reported.

Many economists have attributed the slowdown at least partly to unusually cold and snowy weather in much of the USA, and they say emerging market woes are unlikely to significantly impact the U.S. economy, USA Today reported.

Yellen "will probably emphasize that the weak tone of some of the incoming data and the turmoil in emerging markets are unlikely to prompt the Fed to slow the pace at which it is tapering its asset purchases," economist Paul Dales of Capital Economics said in a research note, according to USA Today.

Tom Porcelli, chief U.S. economist of RBC Capital Markets says: "Our thinking is the Fed is committed to winding down purchases sooner rather than later," USA Today reported.

Real Time Analytics