FOMC Looks for a Better Way to Communicate

The Federal Open Market Committee discussed ways to better communicate its policy decisions, deciding to wait to see if the changes already made help, according to the minutes of its latest meeting, which were released Tuesday.

“Participants discussed a range of additional steps that the committee might take to help the public better understand the linkages between the evolving economic outlook and the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy decisions, and thus the conditionality in the committee’s forward guidance,” according to the minutes of the March 13 meeting.

“The purpose of the discussion was to explore potentially promising approaches for further enhancing FOMC communications; no decisions on this topic were planned for this meeting and none were taken.”

Turning to the economy, the committee felt that moderate expansion continued and the outlook was “a bit stronger overall,” but “broadly similar” to conditions when the FOMC last met in January.

The panel still regards “strains in global financial markets” as posing “significant downside risks,” though acknowledging the stress has eased since January.

Inflation has remained “subdued,” with longer-term expectations “stable,” despite the recent spike in oil and gas prices, which FOMC panelists see as temporary.

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