Wall Street Economists Survey: Fed to Reduce Quantitative Easing Scale in Q4 This Year

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Byung-hee] Economists on Wall Street surveyed by Bloomberg expect the U.S. central bank, the Federal Reserve (Fed), to reduce the scale of quantitative easing in the fourth quarter of this year.

Bloomberg News released the results of a survey conducted from the 16th to the 21st of this month targeting 49 Wall Street economists on the 26th (local time).

When asked when they expect the Fed to reduce the scale of quantitative easing, 45% answered the fourth quarter of this year, the highest proportion. This was followed by 16% for the first quarter of next year and 14% for the third quarter of this year.

In last month's survey, 29.3% expected the first quarter of next year, the highest proportion. At that time, 26.8% expected the fourth quarter of this year, the second highest, followed by 17.1% for the third quarter of this year.

The reason for the increased response rate expecting the fourth quarter of this year appears to be the Bank of Canada (BOC) deciding to reduce quantitative easing. On the 21st, the BOC decided to reduce its weekly government bond purchases from at least 4 billion Canadian dollars to 3 billion Canadian dollars. Canada was the first advanced country to reduce the scale of quantitative easing.

Accordingly, economists expect the timing of the Fed's quantitative easing reduction to be somewhat earlier.

Regarding the expected timing of the Fed's base interest rate hike, economists predicted that there will be no increase until next year. This result aligns with the claims of Fed Chair Jerome Powell.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.