纽约时报 美联储将放缓购买政府债券(2)（在线收听）

    The S&P 500 ended up 1 percent for the day, slightly higher than it was before the Fed’s policy statement was released, and yields on government bonds ticked lower, suggesting that investors didn’t see a reason to radically change their expectations for interest rates.

    标准普尔500指数的收益率当天上涨了1%，略高于美联储政策声明发布前的水平，政府债券收益率小幅走低，表明投资者没有理由从根本上改变他们对利率的预期。

    The Fed has been holding its policy rate at rock bottom since March 2020 and is buying $120 billion in government-backed bonds each month, policies that work together to keep many types of borrowing cheap.

    自2020年3月以来，美联储一直将政策利率维持在最低水平，并每月购买1200亿美元的政府支持债券，这些政策共同作用，使多种类型的借贷保持廉价。

    The combination has fueled lending and spending and helped to foster stronger economic growth, while also contributing to record highs in the stock market.

    这一组合刺激了贷款和支出，有助于促进更强劲的经济增长，同时也推动了股市创下历史新高。

    But now, officials believe the time has come to tiptoe away from such full-fledged support. Late last year, policymakers laid out a lower bar for slowing purchases than for lifting interest rates.

    但现在，官员们认为，是时候悄然放弃这种全面的支持了。去年晚些时候，政策制定者为放缓购买设定了比加息更低的门槛。

    They simply wanted to see “substantial further progress” toward their goals of stable inflation and maximum employment before pulling back on asset buying.

    他们只是想在缩减资产购买之前，看到实现稳定通胀和最大就业目标的“进一步实质性进展”。

    When it comes to lifting rates, officials indicated they would like to see inflation sustainably at their target and a labor market that is fully healed.

    在加息方面，官员们表示，他们希望看到通胀持续保持在目标水平，劳动力市场完全恢复。

    Slowing their asset purchases in the near-term could give the Fed more room to be more nimble in the future. Policymakers have signaled that they want to stop buying securities before moving interest rates above zero.

    短期内放缓资产购买，可能会给美联储未来更灵活的空间。政策制定者已经暗示，他们希望在将利率升至零以上之前停止购买证券。

    But Mr. Powell has tried to clearly separate the two decisions, signaling that changes to the policy interest rate — the Fed’s more traditional and more powerful tool — are not imminent.

    但是鲍威尔先生已经试图明确区分这两个决定，暗示政策利率的改变——美联储更传统和更强大的工具——不会马上发生。

    “You’re going to be well away from satisfying the liftoff test when we begin to taper,” he reiterated on Wednesday.

    他在周三重申: “当我们开始缩减规模时，你将远远不能满足利率上调的要求。”

    Half of the Fed’s policymakers expect to lift rates from near-zero next year.

    美联储有一半的政策制定者预计明年会将上调接近于零的利率。

    Officials released a fresh set of economic projections on Wednesday, laying out their predictions for growth, inflation and the funds rate through the end of 2024.

    官员们周三发布了一系列新的经济预测，列出了他们对2024年底前的增长、通胀和基金利率的预测。

    Those included the “dot plot” — a set of anonymous individual estimates showing where each of the Fed’s 18 policymakers expect their interest rate to fall at the end of each year.

    这些数据包括“点图”——这是一组匿名的个人估计数据，显示了美联储18位政策制定者对其利率在每年年底下调的预期。