For immediate release
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The Federal Open Market Committee at its meeting today decided to maintain
the existing stance of monetary policy, keeping its target for the federal
funds rate at 6-1/2 percent. Recent data have indicated that the expansion of aggregate demand is
moderating toward a pace closer to the rate of growth of the economy's
potential to produce. The data also have indicated that more rapid advances
in productivity have been raising that potential growth rate as well as
containing costs and holding down underlying price pressures. Nonetheless, the Committee remains concerned about the risk of a
continuing gap between the growth of demand and potential supply at a time
when the utilization of the pool of available workers remains at an unusually
high level. Against the background of its long-term goals of price stability and
sustainable economic growth and of the information currently available, the
Committee believes the risks continue to be weighted mainly toward conditions
that may generate heightened inflation pressures in the foreseeable future. |