Newsroom
Increased risks noted in FOMC minutes
Members of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) – the Federal Reserve's monetary policy-setting arm – noted that "some risks to the downside [of economic activity] had increased, including the possibilities of a sharper-than-expected slowdown in global economic growth," according to minutes from the committee's January meeting released Wednesday.
Some of the global challenges noted by participants were uncertainties surrounding Brexit, an escalation in international trade policy and the possibility of additional extended federal government shutdowns.
Following the January meeting, the committee left the federal funds target rate at a range of 2.25 to 2.5 percent. NAFCU Chief Economist and Vice President of Research Curt Long also predicted that there would be no more than one rate hike in 2019. The committee previously pared its projection for 2019 rate hikes from three to two, but January's minutes indicated several participants thought a rate hike would only become necessary if inflation outcomes were higher than their baseline outlook.
"The minutes from the FOMC's January meeting portray a committee that remains optimistic in its economic outlook, but which is alert to rising risks," Long said. "Considerations of those risks drove the committee to emphasize its 'patient' mantra with respect to future rate hikes.
"That is certainly a nod to jittery markets, which seem to have been comforted by the shift in tone from December, when the committee projected two rate hikes for 2019. As things stand now, a rate increase in the first half of 2019 is very unlikely," he added.
Wednesday's minutes also revealed:
- the potential to announce soon a plan to stop reducing the Fed's asset holdings later this year;
- sustained expansion of economic activity, strong labor market conditions and inflation near the committee's symmetric 2 percent objective are the most likely outcomes over the next few years;
- residential investments declined again in the fourth quarter, reflecting decreases in the affordability of housing; and
- financing conditions in consumer credit markets tightened, but, on balance, remained generally supportive of growth in household spending, which increased during the fourth quarter.
The FOMC will meet again March 19-20.
Share This
Related Resources
Add to Calendar 2024-04-25 14:00:00 2024-04-25 14:00:00 ChatGPT: What AI can do for you! ChatGPT has been created with one main objective – to predict the next word in a sentence, based on what's typically happened in the gigabytes of text data that it's been trained on. Did you ever hear of the saying, “People fear the unknown?” Artificial intelligence scares people, but it is the future, and you need to understand the tools and resources it offers. It’s also about saving time, that’s what technology and in this case, artificial intelligence can do for you. If you want to save time and have a better quality of life, this training is for you. Once you give ChatGPT a question or prompt, it passes through the AI model and the chatbot produces a response based on the information you've given and how that fits into its vast amount of training data. It's during this training that ChatGPT has learned what word, or sequence of words, typically follows the last one in a given context. During this webinar, ChatGPT: What AI can do for you, you’ll discover the background, purpose, usability, and the pros and cons. Don't miss this opportunity! Key Takeaways Learn the background of AI Understand the purpose of AI Identify the pros and cons Register Now $295 Members | $395 Nonmembers(Additional $50 for USB)One registration gives your entire team access to the live webinar and on-demand recording until April 25, 2025Go to the Online Training Center to access the webinar after purchase » Who Should Attend NCRMs Risk titles Education Credits NCRMs will recieve 1.0 CEUs for participating in this webinar Web NAFCU digital@nafcu.org America/New_York public
ChatGPT: What AI can do for you!
Credits: NCRM
Webinar
Add to Calendar 2024-04-25 14:00:00 2024-04-25 14:00:00 Unifying Two Different Executive Benefits Programs About the Webinar In part one we discussed how to retain key positions during a time of transition. In part two, we will look at how to combine executive benefits programs from two different organizations into a single high-performing program. Evaluating each program includes many different facets, from strategy and expense to performance and servicing. This session will provide important considerations, whether or not you have pending M&A activity. Key Takeaways: Is the plan design both retentive and efficient? Is the benefit expense properly mitigated? Does the legal agreement reflect the board’s intent? View On-Demand Web NAFCU digital@nafcu.org America/New_York public
Unifying Two Different Executive Benefits Programs
preferred partner
Gallagher
Webinar
Add to Calendar 2024-04-24 14:00:00 2024-04-24 14:00:00 Optimize Liquidity, Maximize Loan Growth: The Network Lending Advantage About The Webinar Join us to learn more about network lending, a cooperative model allowing credit unions to optimize liquidity and achieve loan growth. Discover how credit unions can participate in loan pools with other institutions, allowing them to diversify portfolios, access loans with potentially lower risk and higher yields, and expand lending capacity without necessarily needing a surge in deposits. Delve into how credit unions can pool their resources, set common underwriting and pricing standards, and collectively originate, buy, and sell loans to optimize liquidity management. Hear from your peers about best practices, case studies, and practical strategies to harness the full potential of network lending and how it's helped their credit unions. Don't miss this valuable opportunity to learn how to strengthen your credit union's position in today’s competitive environment. Key Takeaways: How network lending differs from traditional lending The benefits of participating in loan pools with other credit unions How credit unions can set common underwriting and pricing standards and collectively originate, buy and sell loans to optimize liquidity management Why network lending is critical to loan growth Watch On-Demand Web NAFCU digital@nafcu.org America/New_York public
Optimize Liquidity, Maximize Loan Growth: The Network Lending Advantage
preferred partner
LendKey
Webinar
Add to Calendar 2024-04-23 14:00:00 2024-04-23 14:00:00 Monitoring the Latest Litigation Risks Credit unions’ operations pose litigation risks, with more of these cases being filed as class action lawsuits. In this Monitoring the Latest Litigation Risks for Credit Unions webinar, you’ll review some of the specific kinds of lawsuits impacting credit unions and what potential claims could be on the horizon. You’ll also examine some options for mitigating risks. Key Takeaways Review the current lawsuit trends. Understand the potential claims risks Explore options for mitigating risks. Register Now $295 Members | $395 Nonmembers(Additional $50 for USB)One registration gives your entire team access to the live webinar and on-demand recording until April 23, 2025Go to the Online Training Center to access the webinar after purchase » Who Should Attend NCCOs NCRMs Compliance and risk titles Education Credits NCRMs will recieve 1.0 CEUs for participating in this webinar NCCOs will recieve 1.0 CEUs for participating in this webinar Web NAFCU digital@nafcu.org America/New_York public
Monitoring the Latest Litigation Risks
Credits: NCCO, NCRM
Webinar
Get daily updates.
Subscribe to NAFCU today.