December 13 · Published January 3, 2006
Statement·Presser·Minutes
AGAlan GreenspanDecember 13, 2005 FOMC Minutes
Our reading
The minutes read somewhat more hawkish relative to the statement because they reveal the Committee's internal deliberations, which included a broader range of concerns about inflation risks—such as the potential for resource utilization to tighten further and the risk that inflation expectations could rise if policy were not seen as sufficiently responsive—whereas the statement's public language was more balanced and forward-looking, emphasizing that policy would respond to changes in economic prospects as needed.
Our reading compares the minutes of the December 13 FOMC meeting with the FOMC statement issued at the end of that meeting, three weeks before the minutes were published.
Vote
- Susan S. Bies
- Roger W. Ferguson, Jr.
- Richard W. Fisher
- Timothy F. Geithner
- Alan Greenspan
- Donald L. Kohn
- Michael H. Moskow
- Mark W. Olson
- Anthony M. Santomero
- Stern
From the minutes
FOMC minutes
Notation Vote
By notation vote completed on November 21, 2005, the Committee unanimously approved the minutes of the meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee held on November 1, 2005.
Vincent R. Reinhart
Secretary
What changed from the previous meeting’s minutes
- The FOMC raised the federal funds rate target from 4 percent to 4-1/4 percent.
- The FOMC dropped the characterization of policy as "accommodative" from its statement.
- The FOMC replaced its balanced-risk sentence with "some further measured policy firming is likely to be needed."
- The FOMC noted the trade deficit reached a new record in September, versus widening somewhat in August.
- The FOMC reported household inflation expectations retreated markedly, versus rising in the prior period.
- The FOMC saw tentative signs of slowing in the housing sector, absent in the previous minutes.
Summary generated automatically from the two documents.