Preview: Minutes of the Dec 16-17th FOMC meeting due out at 14:00ET
At the December meeting, the Fed made its long await language tweak, from "considerable time" to "patient", that was meant to signify the start of a new phase in which the central bank will begin contemplating the path to policy normalization. Much of the focus on today's minutes will be on how the members arrived at this choice of words and what other language might have been considered. At the December press conference Chair Yellen indicated that "patient" means no tightening for at least the next two meetings. The minutes will continue to stress that rate policy is data dependent, and thus can evolve either faster or slower depending on upcoming trends in the data.
There were 3 dissents (2 hawkish and 1 dovish) at the meeting so there is clearly a hot debate going on about the timing and pace of scaling back accommodative policy, but it's not clear if much new will be learned about this in today's minutes. Based on comments from FOMC member speeches, the general consensus appears to be that once rate lift off occurs they will not put rate hikes on autopilot, and most members believe that rates will rise more slowly this time than they have in the past.
- Link to Dec policy statement: {http://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/press/monetary/20141217a.htm}