Plotting interest rates: The FOMC’s projections and the economy

Stefan Gerlach and Rebecca Stuart

No 12768, CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research

Abstract: The FOMC’s “dot plots†contain members’ views regarding what federal funds rate will be necessary in the end of this and the coming years for the FOMC to achieve its statutory objectives. The dots can be interpreted as instantaneous forward rates. We fit a curve, which is characterised by four parameters, through them and study how it moves with the economy. We find that the level of the federal funds rate the month before the FOMC meeting, the unemployment rate and (updated) estimates by Laubach and Williams (2003) of the natural real interest rate shape the curves.

Keywords: Federal Reserve; Monetary policy; Interest rate expectations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E52 E58 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-mac and nep-mon
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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