Federal Reserve policymakers are discussing doubling the frequency of their economic forecasts and extending them by a year to increase the transparency of policy decisions, officials familiar with the talks said Thursday.
Fed governors and district-bank presidents are considering publishing outlooks four times a year on inflation, growth and unemployment, the officials said on condition of anonymity. The projections will span three years, rather than two, as is the current practice, they said.
Such a plan would give the public more guidance on the central bank’s inflation goals and might help keep price expectations stable, while advancing Chairman Ben Bernanke’s aim of providing more context for Fed decisions.
The proposal falls short, for now, of his ambition of having a formal, numerical, long-run inflation objective.
The proposed changes were first reported Thursday in The Wall Street Journal.
A Fed spokeswoman declined to comment.
