Three Fed Policy Voters Signal Prolonged Easing to Boost Growth

“Monetary policy in the United States is likely to remain highly accommodative for some time,” Fed Governor Jerome Powell said during a speech in San Francisco. Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren backed further easing to “achieve full employment within a reasonable forecast horizon,” while James Bullard of the St. Louis Fed said in an interview on CNBC he wants the Fed to “meet our goals,” singling out inflation.

The policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee last week maintained $85 billion in monthly asset purchases after unexpectedly refraining from tapering the program in September. The committee wants to see more signs of sustained economic gains, it said on Oct. 30 after a two-day meeting.

The Fed won’t reduce its bond purchases until March, according to the median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg on Oct. 17-18 after a federal government shutdown slowed fourth-quarter growth and interrupted the flow of official economic data. Economists had initially expected a tapering of so-called quantitative easing in September.