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To: Mephisto who wrote (22380)	6/10/1999 3:06:00 PM
From: Mephisto	Respond to of 24894

Thursday June 10, 2:23 pm Eastern Time [Fed's Ferguson says U.S. economy may be slowing] EAST HANOVER, N.J., June 10 (Reuters) - Federal Reserve Governor Roger Ferguson said on Thursday recent U.S. economic data -- specifically weak U.S.payroll job creation in May -- may signal a moderation in the rapid pace of the U.S.expansion. However, the Fed Governor also stressed it is too early to find any conclusive evidence of such slowdown. ''The numbers so far, I think, indicate there may possibly be a slowing, but that's not certain,'' Ferguson told the audience in a question-and-answer session at a conference of the East Hanover Area Chamber of Commerce. Ferguson also noted that the moving average for payroll job creation in recent months showed a slowdown as well. Ferguson characterized consumer demand as very strong and driven, in good part, by sharp gains in the U.S. stock market. ''Continued strength in the stock market will clearly translate into continued strength in consumer demand,'' he said, while expecting the economic impact of millennium computer problems to be limited. Ferguson estimated that the ''Millennium Bug'' would subtract a small ''0.1 or 0.2 percent'' from the 1999 U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth. But Ferguson saw a more important reason for the U.S. economy to slow down, saying: ''One would expect that, as long-term interest rates get high and the cost of capital gets higher... presumably that would have a slowing effect on what growth would have been otherwise.'' Ferguson also predicted that healthy recovery in Asia and Europe would have the effect of pushing commodity prices higher.