Following are a couple of excerpts of the minutes of the Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee meeting that concluded on August 10.
Committee Policy Action:
“Members still saw the economic expansion continuing, and most believed that inflation was likely to stabilize near recent low readings in coming quarters and then gradually rise toward levels they consider more consistent with the Committee’s dual mandate for maximum employment and price stability. Nonetheless, members generally judged that the economic outlook had softened somewhat more than they had anticipated, particularly for the near term, and some saw increased downside risks to the outlook for both growth and inflation. Some members expressed a concern that in this context any further adverse shocks could have disproportionate effects, resulting in a significant slowing in growth going forward. While no member saw an appreciable risk of deflation, some judged that the risk of further near-term disinflation had increased somewhat. More broadly, members generally saw both employment and inflation as likely to fall short of levels consistent with the dual mandate for longer than had been anticipated.
All but one member concluded that it would be appropriate to begin reinvesting principal received from agency debt and MBS held in the SOMA by purchasing longer-term Treasury securities in order to keep constant the face value of securities held in the SOMA and thus avoid the upward pressure on longer-term interest rates that might result if those holdings were allowed to decline. Several members emphasized that in addition to continuing to develop and test instruments to facilitate an eventual exit from the period of unusually accommodative monetary policy, the Committee would need to consider steps it could take to provide additional policy stimulus if the outlook were to weaken appreciably further. Given the softer tone of recent data and the more modest near-term outlook, members agreed that some changes to the statement’s characterization of the economic and financial situation were necessary. All members but one judged that it was appropriate to reiterate the expectation that economic conditions–including low levels of resource utilization, subdued inflation trends, and stable inflation expectations–were likely to warrant exceptionally low levels of the federal funds rate for an extended period. One member argued that the recovery was proceeding about as outlined earlier this year and that starting a gradual process of removing policy accommodation fairly soon would better foster the Committee’s long-run objectives of maximum employment and price stability.”
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