The Federal Reserve’s ongoing asset purchases continually add to the accommodation that the Federal Reserve is providing to help strengthen the economy. An end to those purchases means that the FOMC has ceased augmenting that support, not that it is withdrawing accommodation.
Specifically, the Bank announced that it would (1) continue its virtually zero interest rate policy of encouraging the policy interest rate to remain at around 0 to 0.1 percent; and (2) implement the Asset Purchase Program (hereafter the Program) mainly through the purchase of various financial assets, such as government securities, commercial paper (CP), corporate bonds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and Japan real estate investment trusts (J-REITs).