November 16 · Published December 23, 1999
Statement·Presser·Minutes
AGAlan GreenspanNovember 16, 1999 FOMC Minutes
Our reading
The minutes read more hawkish because they reveal that Committee members were concerned about the risk of rising inflation due to unsustainable growth and tightening labor markets, and they debated the potential need for further rate hikes, whereas the statement emphasized that the current action should "markedly diminish" inflation risk and adopted a symmetric policy outlook.
Our reading compares the minutes of the November 16 FOMC meeting with the FOMC statement issued at the end of that meeting, three weeks before the minutes were published.
Vote
- Boehne
- Roger W. Ferguson, Jr.
- Edward M. Gramlich
- Alan Greenspan
- Edward W. Kelley, Jr.
- William J. McDonough
- Robert D. McTeer, Jr.
- Meyers
- Michael H. Moskow
- Stern
From the minutes
FOMC minutes
It was agreed that the next meeting of the Committee would be held on Tuesday, December 21, 1999.
The meeting adjourned at 1:40 p.m.
Donald L. Kohn
Secretary
What changed from the previous meeting’s minutes
- The FOMC raised the federal funds rate target by 25 basis points to 5.5 percent.
- The directive changed from asymmetric toward restraint to symmetric.
- The unemployment rate fell to 4.1 percent in October from 4.2 percent.
- M3 growth accelerated in September and October, unlike the prior moderate pace.
- The working group on directive wording delivered an interim report.
- The next meeting was scheduled for December 21, 1999, instead of November 16.
Summary generated automatically from the two documents.