Fed doubtful on open-ended QE3 policy
By Robin Harding in Washington and Claire Jones in London
The US Federal Reserve is cooling on open-ended asset purchases as officials grow nervous about the dangers of a bigger balance sheet.
According to the minutes of its January meeting, released on Wednesday, “many” officials are concerned about the costs and risks of further asset purchases, as the Fed buys securities at a pace of $85bn a month.
The minutes suggest that QE3 – as the Fed’s third round of quantitative easing is known – could end earlier than previously thought and is no longer a truly open-ended programme. The Fed’s balance sheet has reached $3.078tn and could exceed $4tn if QE3 continues for the rest of the year.
Launching QE3 last September, the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee said it would keep buying assets until there was substantial improvement in the labour market. The goal of asset purchases is to boost the economy by driving down long-term interest rates.
But according to the minutes, “a number of participants stated that an ongoing evaluation of the efficacy, costs and risks of asset purchases might well lead the committee to taper or end its purchases before it judged that a substantial improvement in the outlook for the labour market had occurred”.
That could reduce the support that QE3 provides to the economy because markets can no longer be certain that the Fed will keep buying assets until the labour market recovers.
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