Fed Sees Long Road to Tightening as Economy Still Far From Meeting Goals

• Federal Reserve policymakers believe it will likely "take some time" until the economy generates substantial growth that would allow the central bank to consider tightening monetary policy, according to the minutes of the central bank's last policy meeting released Wednesday.
• At the conclusion of its previous meeting on Jan. 27, the Federal Open Market Committee, the Fed's rate-setting arm, kept its benchmark rate in a range of 0% to 0.25% and bond purchases at a $120Bn monthly pace.
• "The Committee's guidance for asset purchases indicated that asset purchases would continue at least at the current pace until substantial further progress toward its employment and inflation goals had been achieved," the Fed said in the minutes.
• The Fed's willingness to persist with the status quo of a lower-for-longer interest rate environment comes as the 10-2 Year Treasury yield spread curve, a gauge of the health of the economy, has widened to levels not seen since April 2017, on expectations for a speedier recovery and a pickup in inflation.

(Source: Yahoo Finance)