Yesterday, at the US Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, the Fed confirmed its intention to resort to all possible means in order to support the US economy during the crisis. The regulator noted that one of the main goals was to achieve maximum employment and price stability. All 10 voting members of the FOMC supported this plan.
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said at a press conference that the country's economic activity and employment had finally started to recover. However, the economy stays well below its pre-crisis levels. Consumer inflation is suppressed by declining demand and low oil prices. Despite these negative factors, the support from the Fed creates quite positive financial conditions for the country. In particular, the loan programs for US households and businesses were an important step to help get the country through the crisis.
At the same time, further development of the US economy will largely depend on the situation around the coronavirus. The current scale of the coronavirus crisis weighs heavily on the economy and on employment and inflation rates in particular.
Based on this, the FOMC plans to achieve the maximum level of employment and keep inflation at 2% in the long term. With inflation running persistently below the target, the Committee will aim to achieve inflation moderately above 2%. This will allow reaching the 2% target over time. In addition, the Committee plans to maintain an incentive monetary policy until these goals are met.
The FOMC also assured that it intended to maintain interest rates at 0 - 0.25%. The members of the Committee believe that this is the best solution at least until labor market conditions have reached the levels consistent with the Committee's assessments of maximum employment. It will be also appropriate to maintain such interest rates until inflation rises to 2%. The Committee suggests that the rate of growth in consumer prices may well exceed 2% for a short time.
The Federal Reserve also confirmed it would continue to buy at least $80 billion a month in government bonds and $40 billion in mortgage-backed securities. This program will stay in place until there is substantial progress in terms of maximum employment and price stability.
The Committee emphasized that it is ready to adjust the monetary policy if needed. When considering its future policy, the FOMC will take into account the coronavirus situation, the state of the labor market, inflation pressure, financial markets, and international background.
Notably, the Fed's monetary policy has failed to keep the US dollar from falling. Thus, USD continues to decline against most major currencies. The US dollar index fell by 0.5% to 89.840, the level last seen in March 2018.
