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Economy in Brief
Japan's Inflation Shows Mixed Gains
Japan's inflation rose by 0.4% in July...
U.S. Existing Home Sales Continue to Fall in July
Existing home sales declined 5.9% (-20.2% y/y) in July to 4.810 million units...
U.S. Index of Leading Indicators Fell Again in July
The Conference Board's Composite Leading Economic Indicators Index fell 0.4% m/m...
U.S. Philly Fed General Activity Index Back to Positive Reading in August
The current general activity diffusion index rose nearly 19 points in August to 6.2...
U.S. Unemployment Claims Slightly Lower
Initial claims for unemployment insurance went down 2,000 in the week ended August 13 to 250,000...
Viewpoints
Commentaries are the opinions of the author and do not reflect the views of Haver Analytics.
by Tom Moeller November 1, 2005
The Federal Open Market Committee's unanimous decision to increase the target rate for federal funds 25 basis points to 4.00% was widely expected by analysts. The discount rate also was raised 25 basis points to 5.00%. This latest increase was the twelfth since June of 2004.
Today's press release from the Fed focused on the effects of higher energy prices. "Elevated energy prices and hurricane-related disruptions in economic activity have temporarily depressed output and employment."
The FOMC statement further indicated, as it did in September, that "The cumulative rise in energy and other costs have the potential to add to inflation pressures ..."
For the complete text of the Fed's latest press release please click here.
Implementing Monetary Policy, a March 2005 speech by then Fed Governor Ben S. Bernanke is available here.
