We see the current stance of monetary policy as likely to remain appropriate as long as incoming information about the economy remains broadly consistent with our outlook of moderate economic growth, a strong labor market, and inflation near our symmetric 2 percent objective. Of course, if developments emerge that cause a material reassessment of our outlook, we would respond accordingly.
We are still debating whether or not the events of late last year and early this year should be labelled a recession. The fact that we are still debating says something about the episode’s severity. Perhaps we should just let the students of business cycles decide what label to apply and focus on the broader issue.