WASHINGTON (AP) – Chairman Ben Bernanke offered a wide-ranging defense Monday of the Federal Reserve’s bold policies to stimulate the still-weak economy.

The Fed needs to drive down borrowing rates because the economy isn’t growing fast enough to reduce high unemployment, Bernanke said in a speech to the Economic Club of Indiana. The unemployment rate is 8.1 percent.

Low rates could also help shrink the federal budget deficit by easing the government’s borrowing costs and generating tax revenue from stronger growth, Bernanke argued.