Yellen downplays threat of financial instability

Washington

FEDERAL Reserve chair Janet Yellen, in what may be her last appearance before Congress as head of the central bank, described a steadily brightening picture for the US economy while downplaying the risks of financial instability.

"The economic expansion is increasingly broad based across sectors as well as across much of the global economy," she said in prepared testimony to the bicameral Joint Economic Committee due later on Wednesday in Washington. "I expect that, with gradual adjustments in the stance of monetary policy, the economy will continue to expand and the job market will strengthen somewhat further, supporting faster growth in wages and incomes."