If the recent significant reduction in oil prices is sustained, inflation rates will in all likelihood fall below 2% in the course of 2003 and remain in line with price stability thereafter; evidently, this presupposes that wage moderation prevails. Overall, the present policy stance is consistent with the preservation of price stability over the medium term.
8 See, for example, Federal Reserve Banks of Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Kansas City, Minneapolis, New York, Philadelphia, Richmond, St. Louis, San Francisco, Small Business Credit Survey: Report on Employer Firms (Federal Reserve System, 2017), https://www.fedsmallbusiness.org/medialibrary/fedsmallbusiness/files/2018/sbcs-employer-firms-report.pdf.