US Fed discusses $120B asset purchases in last meeting, minutes show

By Ovunc Kutlu

ANKARA (AA) - The US Federal Reserve discussed its asset purchase program during its last meeting on July 27-28, minutes of the gathering released Wednesday showed.

Fed officials "considered the question of how asset purchases might be adjusted once economic conditions met [certain] standards," according to the minutes.

The Federal Open Market Committee's standards include maximum employment in the labor market and price stability goals that include 2% inflation.

The $120 billion monthly asset purchase program, which has been supporting the American economy during the pandemic, has been a hot button issue for investors regarding when the Fed would begin winding it up.

Although the Fed has not yet made an official signal about when it would start unwinding asset purchases, Chairman Jerome Powell said Tuesday that the central bank is in process of fully putting away its emergency tools.

The minutes, however, said no decisions were made about future adjustments to asset purchases.

"Participants agreed that their discussion at this meeting would be helpful background for the Committee’s future decisions about modifying asset purchases," it said.

Most Fed officials said they see benefits in reducing the pace of net purchases of Treasury securities and agency mortgage-backed securities proportionally to end them at the same time, it added.