as you know from our policy statement
released a short time ago the Federal
Open Market Committee reaffirmed the
current 02 quarter percent target range
for the federal funds rate recent global
economic and financial developments are
likely to put further downward pressure
on inflation in the near term these
developments may also restrain us
activities somewhat but have not led at
this point to a significant change in
the committee's outlook for the US
economy the committee continues to
anticipate that the first increase in
the federal funds rate will be
appropriate when it has seen some
further improvement in the labor market
and is reasonably confident that
inflation will move back to its two
percent objective over the medium term I
will note that the importance of the
initial increase should not be
overstated the stance of monetary policy
will likely remain highly accommodative
for quite some time after the initial
increase in the federal funds rate the
committee continues to expect the
moderate pace of overall GDP growth even
though the restraint from net exports is
likely to persist for a time the labor
market is shown further progress so far
this year the recovery from the Great
Recession has advanced sufficiently far
and domestic spending appears
sufficiently robust that an argument can
be made for a risin interest rates at
this time we discuss this possibility at
our meeting however in light of the
heightened uncertainty is abroad and a
slightly softer expected path for
inflation the committee judged it
appropriate to wait for more evidence
including some further improvement in
the labor market to bolster its
confidence that inflation will rise to
two percent in the medium term