We anticipate that it will be appropriate to raise the target range for the federal funds rate when we have seen further improvement in the labor market and are reasonably confident that inflation will move back to 2 percent over the medium term.
The Federal Banking Supervisory Office and the Bundesbank asked all the approximately 3,600 credit institutions under supervision and 200 stockbrokers in Germany about their Year 2000 preparations. The analysis of the preparations is supplemented by personal discussions of banking supervisors with individual credit institutions, particularly those having branches and subsidiaries abroad.