http://www.businessweek.com/news/20...ed-pledge-may-end-in-2011-economists-say.html
April 27 (Bloomberg) -- Federal Reserve officials will probably prepare to pull back from record stimulus by dropping a pledge this year to hold the main interest rate near zero for an âextended period,â according to a Bloomberg News survey.
Thirty-three of 44 economists surveyed said the central bank will remove the two-word phrase from its post-meeting statement in 2011, with 18 betting it will move by September.
- The Fed may wait until 2012 to announce sales of mortgage or Treasury securities it bought to reduce borrowing costs, with 26 respondents expecting a plan next year, according to the survey, conducted from April 20 to April 25.
Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, who gives his first press conference today after a meeting of policy makers, has signaled he wants to ensure the U.S. economy has achieved self-sustaining growth before the Fed starts to raise borrowing costs and trim its $2.69-trillion balance sheet. Regional Fed presidents, including Philadelphiaâs Charles Plosser, have said the Fed may need to contain inflation by raising interest rates this year.
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âTheyâre trying to walk this path, given all the economic uncertainties, between people who want to stay very, very easy and people who want to tighten up the grips pretty quickly,â said John Silvia, chief economist at Wells Fargo Securities LLC in Charlotte, North Carolina.
The Federal Open Market Committee will release its statement at 12:30 p.m. in Washington at the end of a two-day meeting,</b> which resumed today at about 8:30 a.m.
After prior meetings, the FOMC released the statement at 2:15 p.m. Instead, Bernanke is scheduled at that time to meet the press, and the Fed will release economic projections of policy makers, three weeks earlier than its practice since 2007.