FOMC minutes from March 2024 meeting were released today at 7:00 pm BST. Below are key highlights from the document.
- Participants generally noted uncertainty about persistence of high inflation
- Almost all participants at March meeting judged it would be appropriate to pivot to a less restrictive policy stance at some point this year
- Participants generally judged risks to achieving employment and inflation goals were moving into better balance
- Participants noted that the disinflation process was continuing on a path generally expected to be somewhat uneven
- Participants generally noted recent data had not increased confidence that inflation was moving sustainably down to 2%
- Some participants noted concern that financial conditions might not be as restrictive as desired, which could put upward pressure on inflation
- Participants generally noted uncertainty about persistence of higher inflation
- A few participants preferred to continue current pace of runoff until indicators showed reserve were nearing ample levels
- Vast majority of participants judged it would be prudent to begin slowing pace of balance sheet run-off fairly soon
- Participants saw little need to slow mortgage-backed securities runoff, preferring to adjust cap on treasuries redemptions
- Participants generally favor reducing monthly run-off pace by roughly half from recent overall pace
