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Fed Lays Out Plan to Prune Balance Sheet by $1.1 Trillion a Year

  • March meeting minutes show monthly reduction of $95 billion
  • One or more 50 bp rate hikes viewed by ‘many’ as appropriate
The Marriner S. Eccles Federal Reserve building in Washington, D.C.

The Marriner S. Eccles Federal Reserve building in Washington, D.C.

Photographer: Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg

Federal Reserve officials laid out a long-awaited plan to shrink their balance sheet by more than $1 trillion a year while raising interest rates “expeditiously” to counter the hottest inflation in four decades.

The roadmap for reducing the assets they bought during the pandemic was spelled out on Wednesday in minutes of their March meeting, when officials raised rates by a quarter point. They debated going bigger but chose caution in light of the uncertainty caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the record of their discussion showed.

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