FOMC statement
FOMC Statement
January 28, 2015
The January 27-28 monetary policy statement from the Federal Open Market Committee carried no dissents, unlike the previous statement in which R. Fisher, Plosser and Kocherlakota each had some sort of disagreement with the majority. The statement upgrades the pace of the economic expansion to solid, observes a further decline in labor market underutilization, predicts […] More
Spotlight Today Belongs to Central Banks
January 28, 2015
Financial markets await the FOMC statement due at 14:00 EST (19:00 GMT). Meaningful changes are not anticipated. No press conference is scheduled afterward. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) tweaked monetary policy after its first unscheduled policy meeting in thirteen years. Ordinarily policy, which is oriented around the management of the currency rather than a […] More
FOMC Statement: Some Observations
December 17, 2014
The statement released after the FOMC’s eighth and final meeting of 2014 expressed more optimism in labor market trends, deleting the qualifying adjective “somewhat” from improving labor market conditions and replacing “gradually diminishing” with “continues to diminish” in the comment about underutilization of labor resources. Sub-target inflation attributed only “partly” to declining energy prices, meaning […] More
FOMC Statement Doesn’t Rock the Boat
October 30, 2013
Today’s statement from the FOMC announces no changes in policy settings and the same forward guidance as before. One finds in the document very few modifications from the previous statement released September 18. Here are four. The word “generally” has been added to the assertion that information since the prior meeting suggests economic activity has […] More
Today’s FOMC Statement
March 20, 2013
Today’s statement from the Federal Open Market Committee repeated the January 30th statement in most respects, including The retention of all existing interest rate and quantitative monetary policy settings. The retention of the same economic data-driven policy guidelines for the future of the federal funds target. These are thresholds, not targets that would automatically necessitate […] More
New FOMC Statement Not More Hawkish than December Statement
January 30, 2013
Based on minutes of the December meeting, it had seemed plausible that the Fed might tweak the communication of its policy in such a way as to suggest greater consideration over an earlier end to quantitative easing than imagined previously. That didn’t happened. Nor did today’s statement change any existing policy, which was as analysts […] More
FOMC Statement
December 12, 2012
The latest FOMC statement takes several fresh actions, none very surprising, without an accompanying significant modification of its characterization of growth conditions or inflation. No comment on the dollar or net exports appears, but a softer exchange rate is an implicit objective. Quantitative easing will continue at the start of 2013 at a pace of […] More
The FOMC Statement: No Surprises or Market Reaction
October 24, 2012
The October 24th statement from U.S. monetary officials made only a few generally inconsequential changes to the previous September 13 statement. The final meeting of 2012 on December 11-12 promises to be more newsworthy. By then, a lame-duck congress will be dealing with the fiscal cliff, and the identity will be known of the next […] More
FOMC Statement
September 13, 2012
The rumored steps of fresh monetary stimulus were essentially correct despite a statement that upgraded the assessment of overall economic activity as well as views of household spending and the housing sector. Inflation was ruled “subdued” after the prior observation on August 1 that such had “declined since earlier this year.” Jeffrey Lacker, Richmond Fed […] More
FOMC Statement
April 25, 2012
Today’s statement from the FOMC has extremely similar text to the previous statement of March 13 and the same 9-1 vote, with Richmond Fed President Lacker again dissenting because he “does not anticipate that economic conditions are likely to warrant exceptionally low levels of the federal funds rate through late 2014.” Almost all of the […] More
