Fed's Powell stays focused on jobs recovery, expects inflation to ease

Any move to pull back support for the economy, by first slowing the US central bank's $120 billion in monthly bond purchases, is 'still a ways off,' Powell says

US monetary policy will offer "powerful support" to the economy "until the recovery is complete," Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said on Wednesday in remarks that portrayed a recent jump in inflation as temporary and focused on the need for continued job gains.

Any move to pull back support for the economy, by first slowing the US central bank's $120 billion in monthly bond purchases, is "still a ways off," Powell said at the start of a hearing before the US House of Representatives Financial Services Committee.

Despite recent job gains "there is still a long way to go" in pulling millions