1、CRS INSIGHT Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress INSIGHTINSIGHTi i Federal Reserve: Tapering of Asset Purchases Updated January 27, 2022 In November 2021, the Federal Reserve (Fed) announced that it would begin to “taper” its large-scale asset purchases, popularly known as “quantitative e
2、asing” (QE), by $15 billion per month (see Table 1). In light of the further increase in inflation, it announced in December that it would double the monthly reduction in purchases in January. In January 2022, the Fed announced that purchases would end in March, at which point its balance sheet will
3、 stop growing. Under tapering, the Fed will continue to purchase Treasury securities and agency mortgage-backed securities in a two-to-one ratio. Table 1. Fed Monthly Asset Purchases (billions) 2021-2022 Amount Decline from Previous Month Before Tapering $120 n/a After November Tapering Announcement
4、: November $105 $15 December $90 $15 After December Tapering Announcement: January $60 $30 February $30 $30 March $0 $30 Source: CRS. Tapering is the first step in the eventual “normalization” of monetary policy from the highly stimulative policies in response to COVID-19, which included asset purch
