Roberto Perli and Eric LeSueur

The rise in inflation following the COVID-19 pandemic was a global phenomenon, and it prompted many central banks to tighten monetary policy to bring inflation down. A recently published Centre for Economic Policy Research e-book, “Monetary Policy Responses to the Post-Pandemic Inflation,” provides a collection of viewpoints on the actions of central banks and their effects across various economies and markets.

Eric LeSueur

Roberto Perli, Manager of the Federal Reserve’s System Open Market Account (SOMA), spoke at the annual meeting of the National Association of Business Economics on Tuesday, October 10. He discussed monetary policy implementation, the performance of the Federal Reserve’s implementation framework over recent stress episodes, and his perspective on money markets and reserve conditions going forward.

In May 2022, the Federal Reserve (Fed) announced that the process to reduce the size of its balance sheet would begin on June 1. With that process now underway, this post reviews the initial months of runoff. We also highlight publicly available resources that provide data to monitor the ongoing runoff of the Federal Reserve System Open Market Account (SOMA), which holds the securities acquired through open market operations.

Lorie Logan, Interim Manager of the System Open Market Account, Markets

Last week, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) announced steps to support the implementation of monetary policy. The FOMC directed the New York Fed’s Open Market Trading Desk (the Desk) to purchase Treasury bills at least into the second quarter of next year to maintain reserve balances at or above the level that prevailed in early September. It also directed us to conduct repo operations at least through January.

Brian Manning, Corporate Communications Senior Associate, Communications and Outreach

During a press conference following last week’s meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell pointed out that the Fed has made “consequential decisions” about its balance sheet in recent months, including to maintain its current framework for implementing monetary policy and to slow the pace at which it allows maturing securities to run off. A speech last month by New York Fed senior vice president Lorie Logan provides helpful context around questions about balance sheet normalization and how the Fed could implement monetary policy going forward in light of these decisions by the FOMC.