BlackRock CEO Fink gives Yellen high marks

BlackRock Inc. chief executive officer Laurence D. Fink on Thursday predicted a slow-growth economy in early 2016 and gave Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen high marks for her speech Wednesday following the Fed's move to raise interest rates for the first time in nearly a decade. "She gave the market clarity," he said in an interview Bloomberg Television. "I think the marketplace can be calm, and I think the marketplace will really understand, looking at the numbers, how the Fed will operate." The Fed on Wednesday boosted interest rates for the first time since June 29, 2006, ending an era of rock-bottom rates. The Fed unanimously voted to raise its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points, and indicated it would hike by about 1 percentage point a year over the next few years. Since the end of 2008, the Fed has kept its benchmark interest rate at a range between zero and one-quarter percent due to the pressures of the economic downturn. (More: Retirees to benefit from Fed's historic rate move) Mr. Fink, who is CEO of the world's largest money manager, predicted the Fed "will be quite slow in raising rates in 2016" and that economic growth will likely slow down. "My view is that the economy is decelerating," he said. "It's not going to grow is as fast as we want. We'll be lucky if we see a 2% economy in the first part of next year." The reason for the slowdown, he said, is that two drivers of growth in recent years — farming and energy — are slowing down. The Commerce Department last month said that the nation's gross domestic product grew at a 2.1% annual pace in the third quarter.