Fed reporter Ip to leave WSJ, join Economist

By Robert MacMillan

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Wall Street Journal's influential Federal Reserve reporter will quit the newspaper next month, the latest high-level departure since News Corp NWSa.N bought the Journal last year.

Greg Ip will join The Economist magazine as U.S. economics editor, he told Reuters on Tuesday, after covering the Fed since 2001 for the Journal. He likely will join the weekly in late July, he said.

At The Economist he will be responsible for writing and reporting on the U.S. economy and economic policy, including the Federal Reserve, he wrote in an e-mailed statement.

"This is an extraordinary opportunity for me to expand my horizons, to learn a more analytical and critical style of writing, to serve a rapidly growing and discerning readership worldwide, and to work with a remarkable group of journalists and editors who share my passion for economics," he wrote.

Ip's stories in the Journal have been widely followed by financial market participants seeking clues into the Federal Reserve's thinking about interest rates and the economy.

The news of Ip's departure comes the same day the Wall Street Journal ran a Page One story from reporter Sudeep Reddy that typically would have been Ip's bailiwick.

It described the thinking of Fed officials and the likelihood they will hold benchmark lending rates steady for now despite market expectations of a rate hike to fight accelerating inflation. The article was widely cited by market players on Tuesday as a factor in trading.

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