Bernanke: Rate rise pause possible

Reuters reports:

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Thursday said U.S. interest-rate rises will be increasingly driven by economic data and policy-makers could at some point pause in their 22-month credit-tightening campaign to assess the outlook.

"Future policy actions will be increasingly dependent on the evolution of the economic outlook, as reflected in incoming data," Bernanke said in testimony prepared for delivery to the congressional Joint Economic Committee.

He said it seemed "reasonable" to expect U.S. economic growth to moderate toward a more sustainable pace as the year progresses, but the Fed's policy-making committee must still remain vigilant on inflation.

"Even if in the committee's judgment the risks to its objectives are not entirely balanced, at some point in the future, the committee may decide to take no action at one or more meetings in the interest of allowing more time to receive information relevant to the outlook," he said.

Reading the tea leaves.