CHICAGO (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve's new long-run forecasts should help keep inflation expectations anchored at a time when a decline would be "most unwelcome," San Francisco Fed President Janet Yellen said on Friday.
"The FOMC's recently released longer-run inflation projections should be useful in this regard, helping to reinforce inflation expectations of around 2 percent," Yellen said in remarks prepared for a forum in New York.
Yellen discussed a paper on oil prices and the conduct of Fed policy at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business/Brandeis International Business School monetary policy forum.
"There was little evidence that (Fed) policy was inappropriate" in recent years as oil prices roared to record levels and headline inflation jumped, Yellen said.
Wage growth stayed well contained and inflation persistence appeared to be low during that time, "most likely because of increased Fed credibility," she said.
"My hope is that inflationary expectations will remain similarly well-anchored now, serving to stabilize core inflation."
Yellen is a voting member of the Federal Open Market Committee in 2009.
(Reporting by Ros Krasny; Editing by Neil Stempleman)
