![Jerome Powell, chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, arrives for a House Financial Services Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2019. [Photo: VCG]](http://img2.zhytuku.meldingcloud.com/images/zhycms_chinaplus/20190228/80889061-bc7c-4849-aad9-fea77b52366c.jpg?x-oss-process=image/resize,w_650)
U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said Wednesday that the central bank will announce a plan to end its balance sheet runoff “fairly soon.”
Testifying before the House Financial Services Committee, the central bank chief elaborated on the monetary policy and said Fed officials are “close to agreeing on a plan” to stop shrinking the size of the agency’s bond holdings.
“We actually don’t know what the equilibrium demand will be. We’re going to have to find it over time,” Powell said. “My guess is we’ll be announcing something fairly soon.”
The Fed started a process in October 2017 to gradually reduce its massive holdings of Treasury and agency securities, with monthly rundown being capped at 50 billion U.S. dollars.
Reiterating the remarks he made at the Senate Banking Committee hearing on Tuesday, Powell said the Fed’s total assets currently stand at close to 4.0 trillion dollars, representing a decline of about 310 billion dollars since the middle of last year.
He said the Federal Open Market Committee, the Fed’s policy-making body, “can now evaluate the appropriate timing and approach for the end of balance sheet runoff.”
In the longer run, the size of the balance sheet will be determined by demand for Federal Reserve liabilities, particularly currency and bank reserves, he added.
