However, this trend has reversed in 2016, as food inflation rose faster than we had anticipated in the first four months of the year. Furthermore, the rising cost of meat inputs and the lower supply of animals to the market are likely to push meat prices significantly higher over the course of 2016.
Financial market turmoil and risks to the outlook Turning from the abstract to the concrete, the FOMC's decisions to ease policy at its September and October meetings were, in my view, governed in part by an attempt to manage the macroeconomic "tail risks" facing the U.S. economy. To no small extent, stresses in financial markets contributed significantly to those macroeconomic risks.