The Federal Open Market Committee’s March meetings showed that participants were seeing signs of an economic rebound and a pickup in inflation but still believed they were a long way from altering their interest rate policy or asset purchasing program.
“In particular, various participants noted that changes in the path of policy should be based primarily on observed outcomes rather than forecasts,” the minutes said.
The Fed kept interest rates unchanged at that meeting.
JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon also presented an optimistic view of the U.S. economic recovery in his annual shareholder letter, saying that the economic boom could last into 2023 thanks to all of the federal spending to boost the economy.
“This boom could easily run into 2023 because all the spending could extend well into 2023. The permanent effect of this boom will be fully known only when we see the quality, effectiveness and sustainability of the infrastructure and other government investments,” Dimon wrote.
The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday raised its 2021 growth outlook for the global economy to 6%, up from January’s forecast of 5.5%. The organization said that “a way out of this health and economic crisis is increasingly visible.” The IMF did, however, warn of “daunting challenges” given the varied pace of vaccine rollouts around the world.
An auction were held Wednesday for $35 billion of 119-day bills.
— CNBC’s Pippa Stevens contributed to this report.
