— This is the script of CNBC's news report for China's CCTV on November 14, Thursday.
Welcome to the CNBC Business Daily.
Janet Yellen, President Barack Obama's nominee to head the Fed, will testify before a US Senate Banking Committee today, and is expected to offer a robust defence of the Fed's ultra-easy monetary policy.
In a statement prepared for the Committee, Yellen said that the US economy was falling "far short" of its potential, and that the 7.3% unemployment rate was still too high.
Yellen is widely expected to be confirmed by the banking committee, and is expected to continue with Bernanke's dovish monetary policies.
So what does Yellen's potential stint as Fed chief mean for the central bank's taper timeline? Here's what some analysts told CNBC. Have a listen:
[Soundbyte on tape by James Gorman, Chairman & CEO, Morgan Stanley] She's been sitting on the Federal Reserve Board, sits next to Chairman Bernanke. I think she's just a wonderful choice. A first rate intellect, a very honourable, values-driven human being. I think she's just a wonderful choice, and I think having a woman running the Federal Reserve for the first time also is fantastic. No, I don't expect she'll be very different from Chairman Bernanke.
[Soundbyte on tape by Richard Jerram, Chief Economist, Bank of Singapore] I think she was more dovish than expected. I think everybody expected her to play fairly conservative hardball so the Republicans wouldn't give her too much of a hard time, but she's really come out fighting, in the sense of justifying why the Fed needs to stay loose.
[Soundbyte on tape by Hamish Pepper, FX Strategist, Barclays] What people had been thinking was that when Yellen assumes the role of Fed Chair in February of next year, because she would be representing the wider Committee, she would then be less dovish than she had been in the past. Her statement last night doesn't suggest that will be the case, and if we get confirmation this evening, then I think that's negative for the USD.
[Soundbyte on tape by James Gorman, Chairman & CEO, Morgan Stanley] If somebody is surprised by this over the next couple of months - and it will happen in the next couple of mths - then shame of them. I think it's been building here. I think if not for the debt ceiling debacle, we would have had tapering by now.
Li Sixuan from CNBC's Singapore headquarters.