The Federal Reserve's March 15, 2017 statement announced a higher federal funds target range of 0.75–1 percent. A separate implementation note issued that day specified March 16 for the operating changes. Reading those dates together avoids treating the announcement and the instructions taking effect as the same event, or describing the following day's operations as already observed. [monetary20170315a][monetary20170315a1]
The note assigned 1 percent interest to required and excess reserve balances and set the primary credit rate at 1.50 percent, both effective March 16. It also directed the New York Fed's trading desk to maintain the new target through market operations. These are distinct instruments implementing one policy decision, rather than competing estimates of a single rate. [monetary20170315a1]
Some policy settings did not change. The statement maintained Treasury rollovers and reinvestment of principal from agency debt and agency mortgage-backed securities into agency mortgage-backed securities. The operational directive repeated those instructions. A higher short-term target therefore did not, in these documents, announce an end to reinvestment or establish a subsequent reduction in the securities portfolio. [monetary20170315a][monetary20170315a1]
The decision was not unanimous: Neel Kashkari preferred to keep the existing target range at that meeting. The statement also made future rate decisions dependent on incoming economic information. Together, the documents provide a dated decision and an execution framework, not a fixed calendar of later increases. They belong to the same Federal Reserve evidence chain; their agreement is not independent corroboration of economic results. [monetary20170315a][monetary20170315a1]
Source documents
- Federal Reserve issues FOMC statementhttps://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/pressreleases/monetary20170315a.htm
- Implementation Note issued March 15, 2017https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/pressreleases/monetary20170315a1.htm