Steady rates, confirmed purchases, a marginally better assessment of the monetary policy trend. The statement issued at the end of the FOMC’s July meeting, however, the Fed’s monetary policy committee begins to prepare, with great caution, the tapering, the future reduction in purchases of securities, now equal to 80 billion dollars a month (40 billions of shares, 40 of mortgage securities issued by state agencies).
The US central bank in fact recalled that the purchases of securities were launched in December with the commitment to continue them “until significant progress has been made towards the objectives of maximum employment and price stability”. Since then, the statement continues, “it has made progress towards those goals”. The Fomc, therefore, “will continue – and the term is significant – to evaluate progress in the next meetings”.
Loading…
It is not a promise or a commitment, there is no date but the sentence, which did not appear in the June communiqué, evidently opens a new, transitory phase in the monetary policy of the United States.
According to the Fed, economic activity indicators have improved thanks to the vaccination campaign and strong support from economic policy (monetary and fiscal), while the sectors most affected by the pandemic – which remained “weak” in June despite signs of improvement – now “They show improvements even if they have not fully recovered” the lost ground.