Fed Considers Slowing Bond Buying

Federal Reserve policy makers last month differed over whether to begin removing record stimulus this year as they debated the path of monetary policy after the completion of their $600 billion bond-purchase program, Bloomberg reported.

“A few participants indicated that economic conditions might warrant a move toward less-accommodative monetary policy this year; a few others noted that exceptional policy accommodation could be appropriate beyond 2011,” the Federal Open Market Committee said in minutes of its March 15 meeting, released Tuesday.

The Fed said in November that it would buy $600 billion in government bonds in the following eight months in an effort to shore up the economy.

Fed economists gave a forecast for a “moderate pace” of 2011 and 2012 growth similar to projections at its previous session in January, while lowering their forecast for the unemployment rate, Bloomberg reported.

Even so, “the jobless rate was still expected to decline slowly and to remain elevated at the end of 2012,” the minutes said.