two days ago, the committee decided that it would release its economic projections four times per year rather than semiannually and that it would extend those projections from two years to three. the new information will include a description of the economic considerations underlying the forecasts, a discussion of the sources of risk to the overall outlook, and a sense of the dispersion of views among policymakers. the changes adopted by the fomc are an important advance : they will provide additional insight into the committee's outlook, they will help households and businesses better understand and anticipate our policy decisions, and they will enhance our accountability for the decisions we make. the committee's decision to provide this expanded information represents the latest step in an ongoing process, extending back at least thirty years, to foster that accountability and improve the public's understanding of u. s. monetary policy making. i hope that my remarks this morning also prove helpful in fostering a better understanding of how the risk - management tradeoffs affect the policy deliberations of the fomc as it pursues its dual mandate of promoting maximum employment and price stability over the longer term.

25 basis points, to 4 - 1 / 2 percent. the further reduction in the target rate was intended to lessen the extent of macroeconomic risk in the economy and to increase the likelihood of achieving moderate growth over time. in terms of the potential inflation costs associated with that action, the incoming data on consumer prices continued to be encouraging and inflation expectations appeared to remain reasonably well anchored. but, the recent run - up in energy prices and the fall in the foreign exchange value of the dollar suggested to me that, since the september fomc meeting, somewhat greater inflation risks had raised the costs of easing policy to manage the macroeconomic risks. nonetheless, on balance, i viewed the benefits of that action as being greater than the costs. looking forward, one feature of monetary policy to keep in mind is that, all else equal, each successive action in the same direction tends to lower the incremental benefits and to raise the incremental costs of additional actions. for example, unless underlying economic conditions or risks change substantially, reductions in the target federal funds rate tend to be associated with decreasing incremental benefits in terms of further mitigating tail risks and with increasing incremental costs in terms of the potential for inflation to increase. in the current context, i would be especially concerned if inflation expectations were to become unmoored and will watch both market - based and survey - based measures of inflation expectations closely. in sum, in september and again in october, i believed that achieving the fomc's statutory mandate to promote price stability and maximum employment would best be accomplished by lowering the target federal funds rate. with those actions, however, the downside risks to economic growth now appear to be roughly balanced by the upside risks to inflation. i would add that the limited data and information received since the october fomc meeting have not changed my thinking in this regard. economic outlook with the september and october policy actions as a backdrop, i would now like to provide a more detailed description of where i think the u. s. economy is most likely to be headed in the near - term and further ahead. in the near term, the economy will probably go through a rough patch during which a number of economic data releases may be downbeat. home sales seem likely to weaken further given the difficulties faced by some potential buyers in obtaining a mortgage and, perhaps, some concerns on their part about buying into a falling market. moreover, with the inventory of unsold homes already quite