Janet Yellen says economy ready for increase in interest rates

WASHINGTON — Janet Yellen, the Federal Reserve chairwoman, said Wednesday that economic conditions are ripe for the Fed to start raising its benchmark interest rate this month, a move that appears all but inevitable.

“The economy has come a long way toward the ... objectives of maximum employment and price stability,” Yellen said, according to the prepared text of a speech to the Economic Club of Washington.

Yellen said that when the Fed decides to raise rates, the decision would be “a testament, also, to how far our economy has come in recovering from the effects of the financial crisis and the Great Recession.”

[...] it appears that Yellen and her colleagues, who have held the Fed’s benchmark rate near zero for almost seven years, have finally concluded that the domestic economy is strong enough to keep growing with less support from the central bank.

“I anticipate continued economic growth at a moderate pace that will be sufficient to generate additional increases in employment, further reductions in the remaining margins of labor market slack and a rise in inflation to our 2 percent objective,” Yellen said.