Powell Talks Economic Recovery, Near-Term Plans

Fed Chair Jerome Powell in a press conference discussed his thoughts on the economic recovery and what the Fed plans on doing to help. Below are the highlights, courtesy of Benzinga Pro.

Economic Recovery

• Economic Activity Has Continued To Recover From Its Depressed Q2 Level, Real GDP Rose At 33% In Third Quarter, Household Spending On Durable Goods Above Pre-Pandemic Levels
• Spending On Services Still Low; Consumer Spending Dependent On Stimulus
• Housing Market Strong, Half Of Jobs Lost In April Have Been Regained, But Pace Of Improvement In Labor Market Has Moderated, Unemployment Rate Remains At 7.9% As Of Sep.
• Job Losses Have Disproportionately Affected The Poor, Women, African Americans, Hispanics
• On A 12-Month Basis, Inflation Remains Below Our 2% Objective
• New Rise In COVID-19 Cases Concerning, Economic Outlook Depends On Our Ability To Control Virus Spread, Full Recovery Unlikely Until People Are Confident To Reengage In More Activities

Fed's Plans

• We Will Aim For Short-Term Inflation Above 2%, So That On Average, It's 2% After Many Years Of Low Inflation
• We Will Continue To Increase Treasury And MBS Security Purchases 'At Least At Current Pace' For Several Months At Least
• Buying $80B/Month Of Treasuries And $40B/Month Of Agency MBSs
• Many Of Our Programs Rely On Extraordinary Emergency Lending Powers Given With The Support Of Treasury Dept., We Will Put These Tools
• Back In The Toolbox After Crisis - Emphasizes That These Are 'Lending Powers, Not Spending Powers'
• More Fiscal Policy May Be Needed, Current Downturn Is The Most Severe Of Our Lifetimes, Loans May Not Help Everyone
• Going Forward, We Will Release Economic Data At Same Time As FOMC Minutes, Not Weeks After, Will Add Balance Of Market Participants Graphs