Yellen says Fed may raise interest rate this year

The Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said on Friday that she expected the Fed to raise interest rates at some point this year, underlying the fact that economic outlook remain highly uncertain.

Speaking at the City Club of Cleveland of Ohio, Yellen said: " Based on my outlook, I expect that it will be appropriate at some point later this year to take the first step to raise the federal funds rate and thus begin normalizing monetary policy. But I want to emphasize that the course of the economy and inflation remains highly uncertain, and unanticipated developments could delay or accelerate this first step."

She said many of the fundamental factors underlying U.S. economic activity are solid and should lead to some pickup in the pace of economic growth in the coming years.

She also outlined factors restraining the economic activities: business owners and managers remain cautious and have not substantially increased their capital expenditures despite the solid fundamentals and brighter prospects for consumer spending; While national home prices have been rising for a few years and home sales have improved recently, residential construction has remained quite soft. Many households still find it difficult to obtain mortgage credit.

She stressed that although the unemployment rate has dropped markedly during the economic recovery, it could not capture the extent of slack remaining in the labor market, citing reasons that the labor participation rate had been declining and the number of people working part time on the rise. Endite