Washington ? Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said Tuesday the central bank was prepared to raise interest rates more quickly if inflation suddenly worsens.

Delivering his midyear economic outlook to Congress, Greenspan said that economic conditions “have generally been quite favorable in 2004” with stronger growth finally producing some significant gains in employment.

He noted that inflation had risen as well, but he repeated the belief that much of the increase in prices this year could be blamed on transitory factors such as a jump in oil prices.

As long as price pressures ease in coming months and don’t threaten to become embedded in wages, Greenspan said the Fed felt it could continue to raise interest rates “at a pace that is likely to be measured.”

But he cautioned that if inflation pressures do worsen, the Fed was prepared to act decisively to keep prices from getting out of control.

“The Federal Reserve will pay close attention to incoming data, especially on costs and prices,” Greenspan told the Senate Banking Committee.

The Fed raised interest rates for the first time in four years on June 30 by a quarter-point, pushing its benchmark federal funds rate, the interest on overnight bank loans, from a 46-year low of 1 percent up to 1.25 percent.

Most economists believe that increase will be followed by further quarter-point hikes at the Fed’s next meeting on Aug. 10 and following meetings this year and into 2005.

But Greenspan devoted a portion of his testimony to preparing financial markets for the possibility that the Fed would raise rates more rapidly if inflation worsens.

“We cannot be certain that this benign environment will persist and that there are not more deep-seated forces emerging as a consequence of prolonged monetary accommodation,” Greenspan said.

Consumers and businesses have been enjoying the lowest interest rates in nearly a half-century as the Fed has battled the adverse impacts of the 2000 stock market collapse, a recession, the 2001 terrorist attacks and a series of corporate accounting scandals.

Greenspan said that the extended period of low rates had allowed consumers to cut their monthly mortgage payments by refinancing and had allowed businesses to consolidate their debt burdens as well, leaving them in better position to face higher rates.