- 10 Members of the Board of Governors and Presidents of the Reserve Banks arrive at their own independent viewpoints about the economy and the appropriate path for monetary policy. Congress has assigned the FOMC the task of achieving stable prices and maximum employment; however, policymakers may disagree on the best way to achieve those goals.
Thereafter, however, mainly reflecting weak aggregate demand following the consumption tax hike, a decline in crude oil prices, and the global economic slowdown as well as turmoil in global financial markets, inflation expectations started to decline after having been flat for a while, with the observed inflation rate decreasing.