The Federal Reserve leaves the cost of money unchanged and changes its language. In fact, the term “patient” appears in his press release. Indeed, the Fed states that it "may be patient to begin to normalize monetary policy" and that it believes this guidance is consistent with its previous statement that it is appropriate to keep rates between 0 and 0,25% for a considerable period of time. time. For some, this is a de facto abandonment of the forecast of keeping interest rates low for longer and a strong signal for a rate hike by mid-2015. All Fed governors expect a hike in 2015.
The central bank confirms that it is carefully monitoring the evolution of the economy, linking, as usual, the intervention to the macroeconomic data that will emerge in the coming months. “If the information – he says – indicates faster progress towards the objectives of employment and inflation, a rate hike could occur sooner than expected. Conversely, if progress is slower, the increase could occur later than expected."
The information received since October suggests that economic activity is expanding at a moderate rate. Labor market conditions have further improved” and “risks to the outlook for economic activity and the labor market are almost balanced”. Inflation is expected to gradually rise towards 2% as the labor market improves and the transient effects of low energy prices dissipate. However, consumer prices for now remain below this target with the 2015 estimates having been revised downwards to 1% from 1,6% in September. The central bank has kept the country's growth estimates unchanged in 2105 at 2,5-3% but the expectations for the unemployment rate have been revised downwards, to 5,2-5,3% from 5,4-5,6 .XNUMX%.
