Through most of last year, the FOMC maintained the current pace of large-scale asset purchases while awaiting more evidence that progress toward its economic objectives would be sustained
The unemployment rate has remained well above its normal levels and the inflation rate has tended to run at or below 2 percent objective despite the target range for the federal funds rate remaining at its effective lower bound. Accordingly, the strategy of the FOMC has been to employ alternative methods of providing additional monetary accommodation and promoting the more rapid achievement of its mandated objectives of maximum employment and price stability. The FOMC has used large-scale asset purchases and forward guidance regarding the future path of the federal funds rate to put downward pressure on longer-term interest rates.
The second half of 2013, with unemployment still elevated (though declining), and with inflation remaining noticeably below the Committee's 2 percent longer-run objective, the FOMC left in place the key parameters of its monetary policy stance while awaiting further evidence that progress toward its economic objectives would be sustained.
Before modestly reducing the pace of asset purchases in light of the cumulative progress toward maximum employment and the improvement in the outlook for labor market conditions
Most Committee members viewed the cumulative improvement in labor market conditions as meaningful and likely to be sustained. Participants also anticipated that inflation would move back toward 2 percent over time as the economic recovery strengthened and longer-run inflation expectations remained steady. Therefore, most members agreed that the Committee could appropriately begin to slow the pace of its asset purchases.
The Committee emphasized that its holdings of longer-term securities were sizable and would still be increasing, which would promote a stronger economic recovery by maintaining downward pressure on longer-term interest rates, supporting mortgage markets, and helping to make broader financial conditions more accommodative. The Committee reiterated that it will continue its asset purchases and employ its other policy tools as appropriate until the outlook for the labor market has improved substantially in a context of price stability.
The Federal Reserve continued to test tools that could potentially be used to manage reserve
As part of its ongoing program to ensure the readiness of tools to manage reserves, the Federal Reserve conducted a series of small-scale transactions with eligible counterparties. The end of June 2013, the Federal Reserve has conducted four operations for 28-day term deposits under the Term Deposit Facility.
Moreover, the Committee discussed the potential for establishing a fixed-rate, full-allotment overnight reverse repurchase agreement facility as an additional tool for managing money market interest rates. At the September 2013 meeting, the Committee authorized the Open Market Desk to conduct a series of fixed-rate involving U.S. government securities and securities that are direct obligations of, or fully guaranteed as to principal and interest by, any agency of the United States, for the purpose of assessing operational readiness. Their interest in these operations reflected an ongoing effort to improve the technical execution of policy about policy going forward.