연준 1월 FOMC 성명서 전문…기준금리 동결ㆍ“글로벌 경제와 시장 지켜볼 것”

미국 연방준비제도(Fed, 연준)는 27일(현지시간) 이틀간의 연방공개시장위원회(FOMC) 정례 회의를 마치고 낸 성명에서 기준금리를 현행 0.25~0.50%로 동결했다. 이는 시장 예상과 들어맞는다. 또 성명은 “금리가 점진적으로 오를 것으로 예상된다”며 “글로벌 경제와 금융시장이 미국 전망에 어떤 충격을 주는지 지켜볼 것”이라고 강조했다.

다음은 성명서 전문이다.

Information received since the Federal Open Market Committee met in December

suggests that labor market conditions improved further even as economic growth slowed late last

year. Household spending and business fixed investment have been increasing at moderate rates

in recent months, and the housing sector has improved further; however, net exports have been

soft and inventory investment slowed. A range of recent labor market indicators, including

strong job gains, points to some additional decline in underutilization of labor resources.

Inflation has continued to run below the Committee’s 2 percent longer-run objective, partly

reflecting declines in energy prices and in prices of non-energy imports. Market-based measures

of inflation compensation declined further; survey-based measures of longer-term inflation

expectations are little changed, on balance, in recent months.

Consistent with its statutory mandate, the Committee seeks to foster maximum

employment and price stability. The Committee currently expects that, with gradual adjustments

in the stance of monetary policy, economic activity will expand at a moderate pace and labor

market indicators will continue to strengthen. Inflation is expected to remain low in the near

term, in part because of the further declines in energy prices, but to rise to 2 percent over the

medium term as the transitory effects of declines in energy and import prices dissipate and the

labor market strengthens further. The Committee is closely monitoring global economic and

financial developments and is assessing their implications for the labor market and inflation, and

for the balance of risks to the outlook.

Given the economic outlook, the Committee decided to maintain the target range for the

federal funds rate at 1/4 to 1/2 percent. The stance of monetary policy remains accommodative,

thereby supporting further improvement in labor market conditions and a return to 2 percent

inflation.

In determining the timing and size of future adjustments to the target range for the federal

funds rate, the Committee will assess realized and expected economic conditions relative to its

objectives of maximum employment and 2 percent inflation. This assessment will take into

account a wide range of information, including measures of labor market conditions, indicators

of inflation pressures and inflation expectations, and readings on financial and international

developments. In light of the current shortfall of inflation from 2 percent, the Committee will

carefully monitor actual and expected progress toward its inflation goal. The Committee expects

that economic conditions will evolve in a manner that will warrant only gradual increases in the

federal funds rate; the federal funds rate is likely to remain, for some time, below levels that are

expected to prevail in the longer run. However, the actual path of the federal funds rate will

depend on the economic outlook as informed by incoming data.

The Committee is maintaining its existing policy of reinvesting principal payments from

its holdings of agency debt and agency mortgage-backed securities in agency mortgage-backed

securities and of rolling over maturing Treasury securities at auction, and it anticipates doing so

until normalization of the level of the federal funds rate is well under way. This policy, by

keeping the Committee’s holdings of longer-term securities at sizable levels, should help

maintain accommodative financial conditions.

Voting for the FOMC monetary policy action were: Janet L. Yellen, Chair; William C.

Dudley, Vice Chairman; Lael Brainard; James Bullard; Stanley Fischer; Esther L. George;

Loretta J. Mester; Jerome H. Powell; Eric Rosengren; and Daniel K. Tarullo.