Credit Control Program End Is Predicted
The president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston said yesterday the credit controls program was having little effect on consumer spending and predicted the program would be phased out gradually.</br></br>Frank Morris told a meeting of state treasurers from the Northeast that ÛÏif it werenÛªt for the psychological aspect of it we would chuck it overnight.Û</br></br>The Federal Reserve Board, in coordination with the Carter administration, already has phased out part of the controls program, and sources close to the central bank had indicated fur- ÐÊÐÊ ther abandonment of the program later this month after Fed Chairman Paul A. Volcker returned from a visit to China. Volcker returned to Washington yesterday.</br></br>Morris told the Saratoga Springs, N.Y., gathering that the current restraint in consumer spending was the result of the recession and not the credit controls program. ÛÏI donÛªt think removal of the program is going to produce a big upsurge in consumer spend-, ing,Û Morris said.</br></br>He said consumers were not spending because many of them already were carrying a large debt load and were afraid of losing their jobs in the recession.