"Information received since the Federal Open Market Committee met in April suggests that the economy has been expanding moderately this year. However, growth in employment has slowed in recent months, and the unemployment rate remains elevated. Business fixed investment has continued to advance. Household spending appears to be rising at a somewhat slower pace than earlier in the year. Despite some signs of improvement, the housing sector remains depressed. Inflation has declined, mainly reflecting lower prices of crude oil and gasoline, and longer-term inflation expectations have remained stable.
Consistent with its
statutory mandate, the Committee seeks to foster maximum employment and price
stability. The Committee expects economic growth to remain moderate over coming
quarters and then to pick up very gradually. Consequently, the Committee anticipates
that the unemployment rate will decline only slowly toward levels that it
judges to be consistent with its dual mandate. Furthermore, strains in global
financial markets continue to pose significant downside risks to the economic
outlook. The Committee anticipates that inflation over the medium term will run
at or below the rate that it judges most consistent with its dual mandate.
To support a
stronger economic recovery and to help ensure that inflation, over time, is at
the rate most consistent with its dual mandate, the Committee expects to
maintain a highly accommodative stance for monetary policy. In particular, the
Committee decided today to keep the target range for the federal funds rate at
0 to 1/4 percent and currently anticipates that economic conditions--including
low rates of resource utilization and a subdued outlook for inflation over the
medium run--are likely to warrant exceptionally low levels for the federal
funds rate at least through late 2014.
The Committee also
decided to continue through the end of the year its program to extend the
average maturity of its holdings of securities. Specifically, the Committee
intends to purchase Treasury securities with remaining maturities of 6 years to
30 years at the current pace and to sell or redeem an equal amount of Treasury
securities with remaining maturities of approximately 3 years or less. This
continuation of the maturity extension program should put downward pressure on
longer-term interest rates and help to make broader financial conditions more
accommodative. The Committee is maintaining its existing policy of reinvesting
principal payments from its holdings of agency debt and agency mortgage-backed
securities in agency mortgage-backed securities. The Committee is prepared to
take further action as appropriate to promote a stronger economic recovery and
sustained improvement in labor market conditions in a context of price
stability.
Voting for the FOMC
monetary policy action were: Ben S. Bernanke, Chairman; William C. Dudley, Vice
Chairman; Elizabeth A. Duke; Dennis P. Lockhart; Sandra Pianalto; Jerome H.
Powell; Sarah Bloom Raskin; Jeremy C. Stein; Daniel K. Tarullo; John C.
Williams; and Janet L. Yellen. Voting against the action was Jeffrey M. Lacker,
who opposed continuation of the maturity extension program."
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