Federal Reserve officials had a secret video conference call in early March to discuss overhauling its communication to the market and reached a general consensus that the 6.5% unemployment rate threshold for the first rate hike was outdated, the central bank said Wednesday. A summary of the video conference was included in the minutes of the Fed's March 18-19 meeting released by the Fed. On the conference call, the central bankers were clearly worried that changing the forward guidance would impact markets. They noted that, going into the video conference, the Fed and the markets were on the same page about the outlook for short-term interest rates. The minutes of the March 18-19 meeting also reveal that there was concern that the markets would read too much into the "dot plot" which showed an upward shift in the Fed's expectations for short-term rates. Officials also spelled out headwinds that would keep rates low even after the first rate hike. These headwinds included higher precautionary savings by consumers.
Source: Marketwatch
Source: Marketwatch
