© Dukascopy Bank SA
- Charles Plosser, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia President
American policymakers continue to surprise with their comments, as Fed Bank of Philadelphia President Charles Plosser provided some of the contradictive comments by saying bad weather became a massive drag on the labour market and damped economy's ability to create jobs in February. At the same time, he pointed out the Fed should consider accelerating the pace of tapering citing overall economic improvement as well as brighter outlook.
According to the latest fundamental data, the world's largest economy picked up in second half of the last year, when comparing to the first half. Real output advanced 3.3% from 1.8% earlier. Amid brighter prospects the Federal Reserve announced its second adjustment to the monthly asset-purchase programme, cutting it by another $10 billion to $65 billion. In case the pace persists, the FOMC will finish the programme completely until the end of this year. Plosser, however, considers it should be done even faster.
While U.S. employers added 175,000 in February instead of 151,000 expected, policymakers are trying to determine whether cold weather was the only reason for a series of disappointing data. Later this week, retail sales and producer prices have a potential to surprise markets to the downside, as consumers and companies expected to reduce spending during February.