US central bank in no rush to decide on balance sheet’s size, says Yellen

THE US Federal Reserve is in no rush to decide the appropriate size of its balance sheet, but if it ultimately shrinks it to a pre-crisis size, the process could take the better part of a decade, Fed chair Janet Yellen says.

Yellen, in testimony to a Senate panel, says no decision has yet been made on the central bank’s portfolio of assets, which has swollen to US$4.5 trillion from about US$800bil in 2007.