By Steven K. Beckner
Market News International - Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan will have some fresh comments to make when he reprises his semi-annual monetary policy report to Congress Wednesday, a Fed spokesman said Monday.
Since 15 days will have passed since his testimony before the Senate Banking Committee, Greenspan plans to give an updated version of that testimony when he appears before the House Financial Services Committee Wednesday, instead of using his same text, the Fed spokesman said.
In years past, the Fed chairman has often used the verbatim testimony for his appearances before both committees.
"The chairman is updating his testimony, because some time has passed since his last testimony," the Fed spokesman said.
The Fed spokesman did not say how extensively Greenspan will be revising his testimony or whether Greenspan will need to clear any changes with other Fed governors and presidents who contribute to the preparation of the twice yearly monetary policy report.
Word had been anxiously awaited on whether Greenspan would give the same testimony accompanying the monetary policy report that he delivered on Feb. 13 or whether he would be changing the testimony in light of new economic and financial market developments.
Before the Fed spokesman's announcement, there had been speculation that Greenspan might call another special Federal Open Market Committee conference call, as he did Jan. 3, to cut interest rates in advance of the March 20 FOMC meeting. The speculation continued after the announcement was made.
As reported earlier, Market News International has gotten no indication that an inter-meeting rate cut is in the offing, although FOMC members are open to one if, for instance, consumer confidence continues to weaken. The Conference Board is to release its consumer confidence index Tuesday in advance of Greenspan's testimony.
In his Jan. 13 testimony, Greenspan struck a cautiously optimistic note. He said downside risks still "predominate," but said "the exceptional weakness so evident in a number of economic indicators toward the end of last year (perhaps in part the consequence of adverse weather) apparently did not continue in January."