16 Consistent with this, the statement drops language about a “balanced approach” that might be interpreted as calling for the preemptive withdrawal of accommodation and replaces it with a more accurate description of how we pursue our dual-mandate goals in parallel.
As we heard consistently in the Fed Listens events, in many circumstances, consumers and businesses can see very low inflation as having benefits at the individual level. In contrast, at the aggregate level, inflation that is too low can make it very challenging for monetary policy to cut the short-term interest rate sufficiently to support the economy effectively in a downturn.