Fed, More Optimistic About Economy, Maintains Bond-Buying
Source: New York Times
WASHINGTON — Federal Reserve policy makers, more confident about the economic recovery, on Wednesday maintained their current pace of monetary stimulus.
Fed officials also predicted in their latest economic forecast, released Wednesday, that the unemployment rate will decline more quickly than they had previously expected, sitting between 6.5 percent and 6.8 percent at the end of 2014. They had predicted in March that the rate would sit between 6.7 percent and 7 percent.
Officials predicted that the annual pace of inflation would rebound next year, rising closer to the 2 percent rate that the Fed considers healthy.
The improved outlook helps to explain why Fed officials have increasingly suggested that they may seek to reduce the pace of asset purchases in the coming months. The Fed has said that it will stop buying bonds well before it begins to raise interest rates. While the vast majority of the 19 Fed officials who participate in policy continue to expect a first rate increase in 2015, 13 said they expected the Fed to raise its benchmark short-term rate at least to 1 percent by the end of 2015, implying that increases would begin relatively early in the year. In March, only 10 officials forecast that rates would hit 1 percent by the end of 2015.
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/20/business/economy/fed-more-optimistic-about-economy-maintains-bond-buying.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
