Fed's Williams: Appropriate to start reducing pace of asset purchases this year

"Assuming the economy continues to improve as anticipated, it could be appropriate to start reducing the pace of asset purchases this year," New York Federal Reserve President John Williams said on Wednesday, per Reuters.

Additional takeaways

"Even after the asset purchases end, the stance of monetary policy will continue to support a strong and full economic recovery."

"Want to see more improvement in labor market before he is ready to say substantial further progress standard was met for maximum employment goal."

"Even with the strong pace of growth we are seeing, a full recovery from the pandemic will take quite some time to complete."

"There are indications that the spread of the Delta variant is weighing on consumer spending and jobs."

"It's clear there has been substantial further progress on the Fed's inflation goal."

"Expecting real GDP to increase by around 6% this year."

"Expecting inflation to come back down to around 2% next year."

"There is still a great deal of uncertainty about the inflation outlook and we will be watching the data closely in the coming months."

"The pace of growth appears to be slowing somewhat relative to the first half."

"We still have a long way to go to get back to our maximum employment goal."

Market reaction

The US Dollar Index showed no immediate reaction to these remarks and was last seen clinging to modest daily gains at 92.65.