WASHINGTON: The US Federal Reserve is likely to make a final push into the post-crisis era this week with a decision to finally wind up its six-year-old economic stimulus operations.
A few worrisome clouds over the global economy might be expected to give Fed Chair Janet Yellen’s Federal Open Market Committee pause when they meet on Tuesday and Wednesday.
But after repeatedly signalling the end this month of the bond-buying programme known as quantitative easing, the Fed is unlikely to change course, analysts say. The Fed is currently adding $15 billion in cheap funds to the economy per month under QE, down from $85bn last December.
Injecting tens of billions of dollars each month into the economy to repress longer term interest rates has had less and less real impact, while generating what some worry are fresh bubbles in stock markets.
And despite deflation worries in Europe and a surge of concern over the global economy generally, QE3 — the third edition of the operations — has already been tapered to the point that continuing would be symbolic.
The chance that the FOMC might hold off remains. Last week James Bullard, head of the Fed’s St Louis branch and a former FOMC member, said QE should continue until the data is more clear. US inflation expectations are dropping, Bullard told Bloomberg TV. “And that is something that a central bank cannot abide... we could go on pause on the taper at this juncture and wait until we see how the data shakes out into December.”
But analysts point out that the Fed does not act on one or two months’ data, but looks at the trend, which has been steady if modest improvement in the US economy. “The decline in the inflation expectations will undoubtedly take the center stage of FOMC discussions,” said economists at BBVA in a client note.
“At the same time, the focus of the committee’s discussion is expected to progress beyond the timing to end QE3.”
More important, they said, is what the FOMC says about the next phase of policy: the initial increase in the benchmark fed funds interest rate, which has been held at zero since the end of 2008. Right now that is not expected until mid-2015. But any change in FOMC guidance language could give a start to rate-sensitive markets.AFP
