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Economy in Brief
Kansas City Fed Manufacturing Index Increases Again in February
The Kansas City Fed reported that its manufacturing sector business activity index rose to 24 in February...
U.S. GDP Growth Revised Up Minimally in Q4'20
Real GDP rose 4.1% (SAAR) during Q4'20 (-2.4% y/y)...
Inventory Constraints Impede U.S. Pending Home Sales in January
Pending home sales fell 2.8% (+13% y/y) in January...
U.S. Initial Unemployment Insurance Claims Fall Sharply
Initial jobless insurance claims declined 111,000 in the week ended February 20 to 730,000...
EU Commission Indexes Coalesce Well Short of Normalcy
The EU Commission Index for the EMU shows an improvement to 93.4 in February...
Viewpoints
Commentaries are the opinions of the author and do not reflect the views of Haver Analytics.
by Gerald D. Cohen August 1, 2018
At the two-day meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee that ended today, the members voted unanimously to keep federal funds rate target unchanged in a range between 1.75% and 2.00%. This outcome is in line with expectations from the Action Economics Forecast Survey. The statement from today's meeting suggested that additional rate increases are likely to be forthcoming.
The FOMC noted "that the labor market has continued to strengthen and that economic activity has been rising at a strong rate." Meanwhile, overall inflation and inflation less food & energy remain near the 2% objective, and longer-term inflation expectations are little changed. Despite the strength of the economy, "risks to the economic outlook appear roughly balanced."
The Fed's statement also indicated that the "stance of monetary policy remains accommodative, thereby supporting strong labor market conditions and a sustained return to 2 percent inflation."
The press release for today's FOMC meeting can be found here.
The Action Economics Forecast Survey can be found in the AS1REPNA database. Haver's SURVEYS database contains the economic projections from the FOMC (with the latest from June 12-13 meeting).
Current | Last | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Federal Funds Rate Target | 1.75% - 2.00% | 1.75% - 2.00% | 1.00% | 0.40% | 0.13% | 0.09% |