Fed Calm Over 2% Inflation Underlines Gradual Rate-Hike Outlook
- FOMC signals it’s not about to react sharply to rising prices
- Committee sticks with ‘roughly balanced’ assessment of risks
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Federal Reserve officials made doubly sure to convey a relaxed attitude toward inflation rising above 2 percent, mentioning the “symmetric” nature of their target twice in a statement Wednesday that signaled no shift to a faster pace of monetary policy tightening.
Since March 2017, the Federal Open Market Committee has used that word in every post-meeting statement to emphasize it won’t react more severely if inflation is above its target rather than below. While leaving rates unchanged as expected at the conclusion of its two-day meeting in Washington on Wednesday, it added a second reference to hammer the message home.