11/21/2023

Fed Minutes Likely to Anchor 'Careful' Monetary Policy Approach

The minutes will be released today at 2 p.m. EST

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell made liberal use of the word "careful" at his last press conference as he described the U.S. central bank's effort to balance the risks of still-elevated inflation and a surprise surge in economic growth against tightening credit conditions and a Fed conviction that the economy was on the cusp of slowing.

Minutes of that Oct. 31-Nov. 1 meeting, which are due to be released at 2 p.m. EST on Tuesday, are expected to also emphasize a word U.S. monetary policymakers have rallied around at a time when they seem unlikely to raise the target interest rate any further, yet do not want to say so while inflation remains well above the central bank's 2 percent target.

"Inflation has given us a few head fakes. If it becomes appropriate to tighten policy further, we will not hesitate to do so," Powell said at an International Monetary Fund (IMF) research conference earlier this month. "We will continue to move carefully, however, allowing us to address both the risk of being misled by a few good months of data, and the risk of over-tightening."

Please select this link to read the complete article from Reuters.