“By Mohamed A. El-Erian
There are four major things to keep in mind when the U.S. Federal Reserve’s policy-making committee meets this week to decide what, if anything, to change in its approach to supporting the economic recovery.
1. The Context
The majority view at the Fed is that a healing U.S. economy is gradually approaching “liftoff,” and that the economic weakness experienced earlier this year can be attributed largely to unseasonably cold weather. Because policy makers believe the pickup in growth is likely to happen in an economy that has been operating below potential, the Fed isn’t very concerned about inflationary pressure. If anything, the worry is that inflation could be too low.
The Fed’s post-meeting statement will provide updated insights on officials’ comfort with this contextual characterization, with a fuller picture emerging when the minutes of the meeting are released three weeks later. In the meantime, don’t expect any dramatic changes in the Fed’s assessment of the economy, positive or negative. And don’t expect much talk of either “secular stagnation” — the idea that the U.S. has entered an extended period of slow growth and persistently high unemployment — or the threat posed by Ukraine’s deepening geopolitical crisis.
2. Policy Decisions
Given the Fed’s relatively sanguine outlook, expect it to continue the gradual phasing out of its extraordinary bond-buying program, known as quantitative easing. Specifically, it will probably announce a $10 billion reduction in its monthly purchases of U.S. Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities, to $45 billion a month. Although the Fed will undoubtedly reiterate its willingness to change course if necessary, this will do little to dislodge consensus market expectations of a total exit from quantitative easing later this year. Indeed, only a major economic surprise — and, I stress, major — would alter the current policy course.
Look for the Fed to hold its short-term interest-rate near zero, and to provide additional guidance on the future course of interest rates as part of its broader goal of enhancing transparency. Such forward guidance includes more holistic measures of the labor market, as opposed to the unemployment rate alone, and a move toward putting greater emphasis on inflation metrics. All this will be done in the context of an important pivot from a target-based approach, such as the calendar guidance the Fed was providing not long ago, to an objective-based one.
3. Market Reactions….”
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