"Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said the economy has left its soft spot behind and that companies' pricing power is more evident, suggesting more interest-rate increases are to come.</br></br>Mr. Greenspan also focused on new risks to the economic outlook, specifically high housing prices. In a report released yesterday, the Fed said the value of all U.S. housing climbed 15% in the first quarter from a year earlier, and mortgage debt rose 13%, both easily outstripping the 6% gain in after-tax income over the same period.</br></br>""The soft readings on the economy observed in the early spring"" did not presage ""a more-serious slowdown,"" Mr. Greenspan told Congress's Joint Economic Committee. Though there have been periods of weakness during the expansion, they are ""backing and filling. . . . Instead of the economy going very smoothly forward it goes in little cycles. And hence, it's often misread as though we're about to tilt into a recession.""</br></br>He said inflation was ""contained,"" but cited risks: slowing productivity growth, which makes it more costly for firms to boost sales, and ""evidence of increased pricing power.""</br></br>The Fed has raised its target for the federal-funds rate, charged on overnight loans between banks, to 3% in eight quarter-point steps from 1% last June. Mr. Greenspan didn't address future rate moves, but quoted from the Fed's May 3 statement that interest rates would likely continue to rise at a ""measured"" pace. That has come to mean a quarter point per meeting. His commentary suggested that the Fed, contrary to recent speculation, probably will raise rates at least a few more times."