FOMC minutes from March 2024 meeting were released today at 7:00 pm BST. Below are key highlights from the document.

  • Participants generally noted uncertainty about persistence of high inflation
  • Almost all participants at March meeting judged it would be appropriate to pivot to a less restrictive policy stance at some point this year
  • Participants generally judged risks to achieving employment and inflation goals were moving into better balance
  • Participants noted that the disinflation process was continuing on a path generally expected to be somewhat uneven
  • Participants generally noted recent data had not increased confidence that inflation was moving sustainably down to 2%
  • Some participants noted concern that financial conditions might not be as restrictive as desired, which could put upward pressure on inflation
  • Participants generally noted uncertainty about persistence of higher inflation
  • A few participants preferred to continue current pace of runoff until indicators showed reserve were nearing ample levels
  • Vast majority of participants judged it would be prudent to begin slowing pace of balance sheet run-off fairly soon
  • Participants saw little need to slow mortgage-backed securities runoff, preferring to adjust cap on treasuries redemptions
  • Participants generally favor reducing monthly run-off pace by roughly half from recent overall pace