Acting in response to the expanding threat the novel coronavirus disease COVID-19 poses to the global economy, the Federal Open Market Committee cut the target federal funds rate to a range of 0 percent to 0.25 percent on March 15.
In a statement, the FOMC noted, “The coronavirus outbreak has harmed communities and disrupted economic activity in many countries, including the United States. Global financial conditions have also been significantly affected.”
In addition, the Fed is renewing quantitative easing and will increase its holdings of Treasuries by at least $500 billion, as well as increase its holdings of agency mortgage-backed securities by at least $200 billion.
Target rates will be kept low, according to a statement from the Federal Reserve, “until [the FOMC] is confident that the economy has weathered recent even
