BREAKING: Fed Mulls Tweak of Asset Purchases to Keep Recovery Intact, Minutes Show

Photo: Reuters

Investing.com - Federal Reserve (Fed) policymakers mulled a range of options to tweak their bond-buying program, and agreed that while the current pace of purchases was appropriate and an update on guidance was needed "fairly soon," according to the minutes of the central bank's last policy meeting released Wednesday.

At the conclusion of its previous meeting on Nov 5, the Federal Open Market Committee kept its benchmark rate in a range of 0% to 0.25% and pledged to maintain bond purchases at a $120 billion monthly pace.

Fed members debated a range of options on bond purchases to support the recovery, including increasing the pace of purchases or shifting focus to longer duration bonds.

The Fed's bond purchases so far, have lowered longer term borrowing costs for businesses and households, and continue to help steer the economy through the pandemic.  

In recent weeks, the sense of urgency to widen the liquidity spigot has been strengthened after Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he would allow the central bank's emergency lending programs – rolled out at the height of pandemic in March – to expire at year-end.

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