Fed Extends Bond Buying Into 2013
By KRISTINA PETERSON And JON HILSENRATH
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.WASHINGTON—The Federal Reserve refashioned its bond-buying programs on Wednesday, extending its far-reaching effort to revitalize the jobs market and boost the economic recovery into 2013.
In addition, the Fed shifted its communications strategy by specifying the levels of unemployment and inflation that might prompt it to begin raising short-term interest rates, which are now near zero.
The central bank's policy committee, in its final meeting of the year, said Wednesday it would "initially" begin buying $45 billion of long-term Treasury bonds each month. The latest stimulus from the Fed will replace an expiring program known as "Operation Twist," in which the Fed has been buying about $45 billion of long-term Treasury bonds each month and selling about the same amount of short-term Treasurys.
Unlike Twist, the new bond-buying program will expand the size of the Fed's portfolio of assets, which last week reached $2.861 trillion.
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.Eleven out of 12 Fed officials on Wednesday also voted to continue buying $40 billion of mortgage-backed securities each month until the labor market substantially improves. Though the unemployment rate dropped to 7.7% in November, Fed officials have remained concerned about the health of the jobs market.
"These actions should maintain downward pressure on long-term interest rates, support mortgage markets, and help to make broader financial conditions more accommodative," the Federal Open Market Committee, the Fed's policy-making arm, said in a statement issued at the end of the two-day meeting.
Taken together, Fed will be buying $85 billion of bonds each month in an effort to lower long-term interest rates to make borrowing cheaper, spurring spending and investment. That maintains the pace of the Fed's bond-buying since it began purchasing additional mortgage bonds in September. The average maturity of the Treasurys the Fed will be buying is around nine years, similar to those bought under Twist.
As it buys Treasurys under the new program, the central bank will pump reserves into the banking system—effectively printing more money. Critics of the Fed's programs worry the money printing could fuel inflation, though many Fed officials have said they have the tools to manage these reserves in a way that will prevent inflation even when the economy begins to improve.
Policymakers said Wednesday that the economy continued to grow at a "moderate" pace and acknowledged the unemployment rate had declined somewhat since the summer, but said the jobless rate remained elevated. They noted that inflation has been running "somewhat below" the Fed's longer-run objective of 2%.
Fed officials opted on Wednesday to keep short-term rates near zero, where they have hovered since late 2008. Policy makers said that they expect rates to remain very low as long as the unemployment rate remains above 6.5%, inflation "between one and two years ahead is projected to be no more than a half percentage point above the Committee's 2 percent longer-run goal, and longer-term inflation expectations continue to be well anchored."
This marks the first time the Fed has so explicitly spelled out the conditions under which it expects to keep rates low. Fed officials said in Wednesday's statement that the new language was consistent with its previous guidance that they expected to keep rates low until at least mid-2015.
Fed officials stressed that these levels wouldn't commit them to taking policy action.
"In determining how long to maintain a highly accommodative stance of monetary policy, the Committee will also consider other information," including data on the labor market, inflation and financial developments, the statement noted.
Later in the afternoon, policy makers will release their quarterly economic forecasts and their projections for interest rates over the next few years. Chairman Ben Bernanke will hold a news conference at 2:15 p.m. EST.
Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond President Jeffrey Lacker voted against the committee's action on Wednesday because he "opposed the asset purchase program and the characterization of the conditions under which an exceptionally low range for the federal funds rate will be appropriate." Mr. Lacker has dissented at all eight FOMC meetings this year.
All seven Fed governors vote at every policy meeting, as does the president of the New York Fed, William Dudley. The presidents of the 11 other regional Fed banks vote on a rotating basis. This year, in addition to Mr. Lacker, Cleveland Fed President Sandra Pianalto, Atlanta Fed President Dennis Lockhart and San Francisco Fed President John Williams can vote.