2014.04.1614:05:00UTC+00Yellen: Rates To Stay Low For Considerable Time

The Federal Reserve will keep its benchmark interest rates at exceptionally low levels for a considerable time, Fed Chair Janet Yellen said Wednesday.

Yellen acknowledged that economic growth slowed over the winter, but suggested that a significant part of the weakness was due to unusually cold winter weather.

She insisted again that the Fed will remain highly accommodative until employment and inflation reach healthier levels.

Yellen has taken an increasingly dovish tone since her press conference explaining the Fed's most recent interest rate decision back in March.

At that time, she told reporters that the Fed would tighten rates six months after their massive bond buying program was completely wound down.

Markets took her remarks to mean rates will be hiked this time next year, but Yellen has since distanced herself from that outlook.

"The larger the shortfall of employment or inflation from their respective objectives, and the slower the projected progress toward those objectives, the longer the current target range for the federal funds rate is likely to be maintained," she told the Economic Club of New York today.

"This approach underscores the continuing commitment of the (Fed's policy-setting committee) FOMC to maintain the appropriate degree of accommodation to support the recovery," she added, according to prepared remarks.

She spoke about the Fed's decision to move away from its 6.5 percent unemployment target in favor of more qualitative analysis.

"The new guidance also reaffirms the FOMC's view that decisions about liftoff should not be based on any one indicator, but that it will take into account a wide range of information on the labor market, inflation, and financial developments."

"In recent months, some indicators have been notably weak, requiring us to judge whether the data are signaling a material change in the outlook," Yellen said. "The unusually harsh winter weather in much of the nation has complicated this judgment, but my FOMC colleagues and I generally believe that a significant part of the recent softness was weather related."