The Fed decided to wind down its asset purchase program twice as quickly

The Fed will cut its asset buyback program twice as fast from January, by $30 billion a month, the agency said in a statement. At this rate, the program will be fully completed in March 2022.

The Fed also updated the dot chart of forecasts. It shows that the majority of Fed members are ready to raise rates at least three times next year. The previous chart, released in September, showed that 9 of the 18 Fed leaders expected one rate hike in 2022. Three of them assumed that the rate would be increased twice.

The current outlook may be a less reliable signal than usual, told Mellon Investments chief economist Vincent Reinhart Bloomberg. US President Joe Biden has to nominate three more candidates for the Fed's board of governors, and the policy of the new composition may turn out to be more dovish.

tapering to accelerate More than half of the economists polled by Bloomberg expected . on November 30 The expediency of such a step was announced by Fed Chairman Jerome Powell. The Fed's rhetoric has become more hawkish as inflation continues to pick up in the US, hitting 6.8% in annual terms in November, the highest in 39 years.

The asset buyback program was launched by the Fed in June 2020 to support the US economy in the face of the coronavirus. It provided for the monthly redemption of government bonds for $80 billion per month and mortgage bonds for $40 billion. In November, the regulator began to reduce the program by $15 billion per month.