The Federal Reserve rolls out average inflation targeting
- Fed will target average inflation and put emphasis on 'broad and inclusive' employment
- Shift motivated by underlying changes to the economy including lower potential growth and persistently lower interest rates and low inflation
- Fed likely to be constrained by its effective lower bound more frequently than in past
- Fed not tying itself to any particular method to define 'average' inflation
- Says Fed will "not hesitate to act' if inflation rises 'above levels consistent with our goal'
- Full statement
- New statement on longer-run goals and monetary policy strategy
There are news headlines highlighting a shift to placing employment ahead of inflation. That would be as big -- if not bigger -- than average inflation targeting; however I don't see that in the text of the release so be careful.
The main takeaway new doctrine is that "following periods when inflation has been running persistently below 2 percent, appropriate monetary policy will likely aim to achieve inflation moderately above 2 percent for some time."
We don't know what 'moderately' means or 'some time' and the Fed is giving itself to interpret it as it feels. That's adding some dangerous uncertainty. I don't understand how 10-year yields are only at 0.655%. Obviously that's underpinned by Fed buying but the Fed is going all-in here.
