Fed's Evans see QE3 lasting until through 2013 - MarketWatch

Fed's Evans see QE3 lasting until through 2013 - MarketWatch

 The Federal Reserve's third round of bond purchases will likely have to last through 2013 until it can achieve improvement in the labor market, said Charles Evans, the president of the Chicago Fed Bank, on Monday. "I frankly think it is going to take almost a year to see the type of improvements in labor markets that I am expecting," Evans said in an interview on CNBC. Evans, a strong backer of QE3, will be a voting member of the Fed's interest-rate setting committee next year. The Fed's QE3 program does not have a set end-date. Evans said he supported boosting monthly asset purchases under QE3 to $85 billion yearly next year. At the moment, the Fed is purchasing that amount of Treasurys and agency mortgage-backed securities but $45 billion of those purchases is set to end in December when the central bank's Operation Twist plan ends. If the Fed did not take any action to boost bond purchases after the Twist plan ended, that would be a "step down," Evans said.