US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke said gauges of the US economy’s strength may fail to measure the suffering of individual citizens.

“Even though some key aggregate metrics – including consumer spending, disposable income, household net worth and debt service payments – have moved in the direction of recovery, it is clear that many individuals and households continue to struggle with difficult economic and financial conditions,” Mr Bernanke said yesterday.

The federal open market committee said last week it would pump fresh stimulus if necessary into the weakening economic expansion to boost growth and reduce an unemployment rate that has been stuck at 8 per cent or higher for more than three years.

Mr Bernanke did not address the outlook for monetary policy or the economy, or expand on the Fed’s statement.

He said economists should “increase the attention paid to microeconomic data, which better capture the diversity of experience across households and firms”. – (Bloomberg)