Fed meeting to mull new moves to boost economy

The Federal Open Market Committee was expected
to come up with mild moves to further lower
long-term interest rates
© AFP/File Karen Bleier

AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The Federal Reserve’s top policy makers launched into a two-day meeting Tuesday to decide new tools they can deploy to help the near-stagnant US economy without sparking a jump in inflation.

The Federal Open Market Committee was expected to come up with mild moves to further lower long-term interest rates, in hopes of prodding cash-rich banks to lend and companies to invest despite gloomy economic forecasts.

But worries by some FOMC members over rising prices was expected to prevent any move toward a renewed “quantitative easing” program, injecting billions of dollars of liquidity into the economy.

The previous “QE2” operation, which expired at the end of June, added $600 billion into the economy over six months, forestalling deflation but failing to generate self-sustaining economic growth.