Fed overhauls content, frequency of forecasts

Northwestern Financial Review, Dec 1-Dec 14, 2007

The Federal Reserve Bank Open Market Committee will release economic forecasts quarterly and expand the content of those projections, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke announced on Nov. 14. Bernanke said the central bank will also extend its projection horizon to three years from the current two. The changes call for the FOMC to utilize data on overall personal consumption and expenditures, inflation, real gross domestic product growth, the unemployment rate and core inflation; it will stop using nominal GDP growth.

Fed officials said the changes will provide fuller discussions of projections, risks to the economic outlook, and policymakers' views. The 2008 forecasts will be released with minutes from FOMC meetings set for January, April, June and October.