
“Progress on vaccinations has reduced the spread of Covid-19 in the United States,” the Fed said in its statement, which contained several upbeat revisions. As businesses are able to reopen, the labor market is healing, prices are rebounding from a pandemic-era slump and overall growth is surging. The central bank’s increasingly buoyant take on the economy partly reflects that vaccines have become widespread in the United States, diminishing the risk that another wave of coronavirus infections will drive the economy back to a standstill. But he also spoke optimistically about the economic outlook and said the central bank was beginning to discuss when and how it should slow its other key monetary policy - huge purchases of government-backed debt that it carries out to stoke demand. Powell, played down the significance of those tentative rate forecasts during a postmeeting news conference, emphasizing that borrowing costs would remain low for a long time. Officials now see rates rising to 0.6 percent by the end of 2023, up from 0.1 percent. Previously, more than half of officials had anticipated that rates would stay near zero, where they have been since March 2020, into at least 2024. So, committee participants were of the view that since we adopted that guidance in December, the economy has clearly made progress, although we are still a ways from our goal of substantial further progress.įederal Reserve officials signaled on Wednesday that they expected to raise interest rates from rock bottom sooner than they had previously forecast and that they were taking baby steps toward reducing their vast bond purchases - tweaks that, together, demonstrated their increasing confidence that the economy would rebound robustly from the pandemic.įed policymakers expect to make two interest rate increases by the end of 2023, the central bank’s updated summary of economic projections showed Wednesday. And I now suggest that we retire that term, which which has served its purpose well, I think. You know, who doesn’t want to see that? But you can think of this meeting that we had as the talking about talking about meeting, if you like. I would say it is so great to see the reopening of the economy, though, and to see people out living their lives again. It’s great to see the progress, but again, I would not declare victory yet. The housing sector is strong and business investment is increasing at a solid pace. Household spending is rising at a rapid pace, boosted by the ongoing reopening of the economy, fiscal support and accommodative financial conditions.

Much of this rapid growth reflects the continued bounceback in activity from depressed levels. this year appears to be on track to post its fastest rate of increase in decades. Indicators of economic activity and employment have continued to strengthen, and real G.D.P. Widespread vaccinations, along with unprecedented fiscal policy actions, are also providing strong support to the recovery. These measures, along with our strong guidance on interest rates and on our balance sheet, will ensure that monetary policy will continue to deliver powerful support to the economy until the recovery is complete. Today, the Federal Open Market Committee kept interest rates near zero and maintained our asset purchases.

economy was showing signs of a strong recovery, but that there was still progress to be made.


Powell, the Federal Reserve chair, said on Wednesday that the U.S. Economy Is Rebounding, Powell Says Jerome H.
