Fisher: FOMC Doves Won’t Advocate for QE3

WASHINGTON — The so-called doves on the Federal Open Market Committee will not be pushing for another round of monetary stimulus for the U.S. economy, despite signs last week that the economic recovery may be stalling, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas president Richard Fisher said Tuesday.

“You are not going to see further expansionary” policy, Fisher said during an appearance on the cable network CNBC.

In fact, Fisher said despite the dismal economic data released last week, he still expects growth in the second half of the year to be “more robust” than some project, and predicted a growth rate of between 3% to 4%.

And to those who believe that May’s weak jobs numbers — only 54,000 added to nonfarm payrolls — will spur the Fed to action, Fisher was unequivocal in his belief that the May jobs report “was not a game-changer.”

“All of us are agreed that we’ll wait and see what happens,” he said. “We do not make policy based on the immediate, we make policy on what we can foresee for the intermediate term.”

“We shouldn’t react to month-to-month numbers or short-term developments,” Fisher added.

The Fed’s $600 billion large-scale asset purchase program ends in June, and when pressed on whether he expected at least the “hardcore doves” on the FOMC to advocate for an extension, Fisher said: “I do not. That’s my personal expectation. I do not.”

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