2008.06.25 15:02:09 FOMC Resumes 2-Day Meeting At 9:00 AM EST, As Scheduled
WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--The Federal Open Market Committee resumed its two-day meeting at 9:00 a.m. EDT Wednesday, as scheduled, a Federal Reserve spokeswoman said.
Following the meeting's conclusion, the committee is expected to announce any decision it makes on short-term interest rates and issue an accompanying statement on the economy at about 2:15 p.m. EDT Wednesday.
With the FOMC widely-anticipated to hold the fed funds rate steady at 2.00%, the statement will be scrutinized even more than usual for any hint of the central bank's next step.
From September to April, the Fed aggressively cut the short-term interest rate target by 3.25 percentage points to just 2% in effort to prevent the economy from tipping into recession. A housing market rocked by widespread foreclosures has been weighing on the economy as well as a related credit crunch.
At the same time, central bankers around the globe have recently raised greater concern about high energy and food prices and their impact on inflation expectations. Fed watchers see policymakers trying to reflect those greater inflation concerns in the statement - without signaling that rate hikes are imminent.
-By Maya Jackson Randall; Dow Jones Newswires; 202 862 9255; maya.jackson-randall@dowjones.com
Corrected June 25, 2008 09:34 ET (13:34 GMT)
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 25, 2008 09:02 ET (13:02 GMT)
No comments:
Post a Comment