Given my baseline outlook, I expect that the current pace of purchases will remain appropriate for quite some time. Of course, the outlook is highly uncertain, and forecasts are subject to revisions—a key reason why our forward guidance is outcome based and tied to realized progress on our goals. The recovery thus far has been uneven, and the path ahead is uncertain.
We remain far from our goals, with core PCE inflation only at 1.4 percent and payroll employment nearly 10 million below its pre-pandemic level. The Committee’s forward See the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention COVID Data Tracker, available at https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#vaccinations.