Recent Updates
- Hungary: Labor Force (Apr)
- Kazakhstan: Bank Loans (Apr)
- Singapore: IP (Apr)
- Australia: General Insurance Performance (Q1)
- Japan: Services Producer Price Indexes, Semiconductor Mfg Equipment
- more updates...
Economy in Brief
U.S. Mortgage Applications Continue to Weaken
The MBA Loan Applications Index fell 1.2% (-54.5% y/y) in the week ended May 20...
German Climate Reading Continues to Skid Toward the Abyss
Germany's GfK consumer climate reading improved ever so slightly in June...
U.S. New Home Sales Plunge in April as Prices Jump
The new home sales market is unraveling...
U.S. Energy Prices Rise Further
Retail gasoline prices increased to $4.59 per gallon in the week ended May 23...
S&P Flash PMIs Are Mixed in May As Manufacturing Erodes Slowly
Among the early reporting countries in Europe and Japan, the S&P PMI readings for May tilt toward weakness...
Viewpoints
Commentaries are the opinions of the author and do not reflect the views of Haver Analytics.
State Coincident Indexes in April 2022
State Labor Markets in April 2022
Profits & Margins Plunge In Q1: Expect More Margin Contraction As Fed Squeezes Inflation
The Many Links of Inflation Cycle: Hard Landing Is Needed to Crack Them
Peak Inflation and Fed Policy: A Relationship which Should Worry the Fed and Scare Investors
by Tom Moeller April 29, 2015
At today's meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee, the Fed indicated that the recent slowdown in economic growth was related to "transitory" factors. Also noted was that labor markets remained "underutilized." It continued to suggest that "with appropriate policy accommodation, economic activity will expand at a moderate pace."
The Fed continued to indicate that inflation was running below its long-run objective, due to lower energy prices and falling non-energy import prices. It noted that "longer term inflation expectations have remained stable."
As a result of these views, the Fed elected to leave its target for the federal funds rate at 0 to 1/4 percent.
The press release for today's FOMC meeting can be found here.
The backdrop to today's meeting was a recent pickup in M2 growth to 6.1% y/y from its October low of 5.1%, and a recovery in monetary base growth to 3.9% y/y after having been negative in February. In addition, the foreign exchange value of the U.S. dollar has risen roughly 20% during the past year.
Haver's SURVEYS database contains the economic projections from the Federal Reserve Board.
Current | Last | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Federal Funds Rate, % (Target) | 0.00-0.25 | 0.00-0.25 | 0.11 | 0.14 | 0.10 | 0.17 |
Discount Rate, % | 0.75 | 0.75 | 0.75 | 0.75 | 0.75 | 0.72 |