speeches · April 3, 2018
Regional President Speech
James Bullard · President
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From the President
The U.S. Economy Three Months into 2018
April 4-5, 2018
Presentation (pdf) | Press Release | Photos
On a two-day tour of Little Rock, Ark., where the St. Louis Fed has a Branch, President
James Bullard met with bankers, spoke at a breakfast presentation during the Arkansas
Bankers Association and Arkansas State Bank Department’s Day with the Commissioner,
visited Kimberly-Clark’s plant in Maumelle, Ark., and met with the Little Rock Branch’s
board of directors.
At the breakfast presentation, Bullard discussed real GDP growth, in�ation and the yield
curve, as well as the current stance of monetary policy. Bullard noted that global real GDP
growth surprised to the upside during 2017, driving global �nancial market developments
last year. However, he noted the effects of this growth surprise have stalled so far in 2018 in
the face of uncertain �rst-quarter U.S. real GDP growth along with other factors. On
in�ation, he commented that while it remains low, it is expected to move somewhat higher
during 2018. Regarding other macroeconomic developments, he noted that yield curve
inversion remains a possibility later this year, and that monetary policy is close to neutral
today. “Current monetary policy settings are close to neutral, which is appropriate for the
current macroeconomic situation,” he said.
Bullard spoke Wednesday morning at the Arkansas Bankers Association and Arkansas State Bank
Department’s Day with the Commissioner. About 250 people attended his breakfast presentation.
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After his presentation, Bullard took questions Wednesday morning from an over�ow audience of mostly
bankers attending the event. All of Arkansas is in the St. Louis Fed’s District, along with parts of six other
states. Bullard’s outreach efforts regularly take him around the District to meet with constituents.
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Bullard (center) and Robert Hopkins (right), senior vice president and regional executive of the St. Louis Fed’s
Little Rock Branch, chatted with Ava Roberts (left), director of government relations at the Arkansas Bankers
Association. They spoke Wednesday during the Arkansas Bankers Association and Arkansas State Bank
Department’s Day with the Commissioner.
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On Wednesday, Bullard visited Kimberly-Clark’s plant in Maumelle, Ark. Shown above, from left to right, are
Susan Wilson, process and commercialization manager at Kimberly-Clark; Judy Keller, director of community
and economic development for the city of Maumelle; Karen Branding, senior vice president of Public Affairs
at the St. Louis Fed; Andy Chier, operations manager at Kimberly-Clark; Bullard; Owen Gill, �nance logistics
manager at Kimberly-Clark; Robert Hopkins, senior vice president and regional executive of the St. Louis
Fed’s Little Rock Branch; and Mike Watson, mayor of Maumelle.
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Cite this document
APA
James Bullard (2018, April 3). Regional President Speech. Speeches, Federal Reserve. https://whenthefedspeaks.com/doc/regional_speeche_20180404_james_bullard
BibTeX
@misc{wtfs_regional_speeche_20180404_james_bullard,
author = {James Bullard},
title = {Regional President Speech},
year = {2018},
month = {Apr},
howpublished = {Speeches, Federal Reserve},
url = {https://whenthefedspeaks.com/doc/regional_speeche_20180404_james_bullard},
note = {Retrieved via When the Fed Speaks corpus}
}