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7/26/24, 1:46 PM

FRB: Press Release -- FOMC announced modifications of its disclosure procedures -- January 19, 2000

Release Date: January 19, 2000

For immediate release
The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) announced today that it approved
modifications to its disclosure procedures at its December 21 meeting.
These modifications, which will take effect as of the February FOMC meeting, are designed
to enhance communication to the public. They are summarized here and described in more
detail in the accompanying attachment.
First, the Committee determined that a statement will be issued to the public immediately
after every FOMC meeting. The previously stated procedure was to release a statement only
in the event of a policy action or a major shift in the Committee's view about prospective
developments.
Second, the FOMC changed its language describing its assessment of future developments.
This new language will describe the FOMC's consensus about the balance of risks to the
attainment of its long-run goals of price stability and sustainable economic growth and will
be used in the announcement made after each meeting. More specifically, the announcement
will indicate how the Committee assesses the risks of heightened inflation pressures or
economic weakness in the foreseeable future. This time frame in the new language is
intended to cover an interval extending beyond the next FOMC meeting.
Under its prior procedures, which will no longer be used, the FOMC's view about the period
ahead (referred to as the "policy tilt" or "policy bias") was couched in terms of the relative
chances of an increase or decrease in the intended federal funds rate. The "bias" language
voted on by the Committee explicitly referenced the intermeeting period.
The revised disclosure procedures were proposed by the "Working Group on the Directive
and Disclosure Policy," which was formed in August 1999 and chaired by Federal Reserve
Board Vice Chairman Roger W. Ferguson, Jr. The Working Group also included the
following FOMC members: Governors Edward W. Kelley, Jr., Laurence H. Meyer and
Edward M. Gramlich and Federal Reserve Bank Presidents Robert T. Parry (San Francisco),
Michael H. Moskow (Chicago) and William Poole (St. Louis).
Attachment (9 KB PDF)
2000 Monetary policy
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