Stay the course, the Federal Reserve Board said as it released the minutes of its last meeting. "Economic activity continued to increase at a moderate rate in the second quarter," the minutes reported, with private-sector employment expanding but the unemployment rate still elevated. Housing prices continued to rise, as did mortgage rates.
The projection for near-term growth in output (GDP) "was little changed" from that of the previous board meeting. But fiscal policy -- government spending projects -- is still expected to restrain economic growth this year. However, GDP growth will accelerate "gradually" in 2014 and 2015, as the Fed continues to pump up the money flow and government eventually eases its fiscal policy restraint.
All things considered, the Fed feels that growth will continue "despite tighter fiscal policy," so the central bank will keep up its "highly accommodative" monetary policy, and reaffirmed its plan to keep interest rates low -- zero to a quarter of one percent -- as long as the unemployment rate remains above 6.5 percent and inflation stays no more than a half-point above the board's 2 percent goal.
No comments:
Post a Comment