The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) – the board of directors of the Federal Reserve decided to continue to “taper” – reduce their RATE of MONTHLY purchasing under their quantitative easing policy. The taper in the 18 December 2013 meeting was $10 billion, the 29 January 2014 meeting added $10 of taper, the 19 March meeting tapered $10 million. and now the 30 April meeting tapered another $10 million.
Information received since the Federal Open Market Committee met in March indicates that growth in economic activity has picked up recently, after having slowed sharply during the winter in part because of adverse weather conditions.
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This was the second meeting chaired by Janet L. Yellen – and little was changed in the meeting statement. Tapering of the $85 million per month quantitative easing program began in December 2013 under former FOMC Chair Bernanke.
The following table compares the statement from the previous FOMC meeting to the statement for the meeting concluding today. Â Too much is being taken out of context in the media – review the changes below in context.
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