fostering effective transmission of monetary policy to broader financial conditions. since march 17, the board has announced the establishment of no fewer than 11 new facilities to support the flow of credit to households and businesses. these programs are authorized under emergency lending powers granted to the fed under section 13 ( 3 ) of the federal reserve act and are available only in “ unusual and exigent ” circumstances and with the consent of the secretary of treasury. 3 these facilities are supported with money invested by the department of the treasury, drawing on appropriations of more than $ 450 billion authorized by the congress in the cares act ( coronavirus aid, relief, and economic security act ) for the specific purpose of investing in fed programs to sustain the flow of credit to households, firms, and communities during the coronavirus pandemic. with these facilities, we are providing a bridge by stepping in and supporting lending throughout the economy until the recovery takes hold. these programs are designed to offer backstop sources of funding to the private sector, and just the announcement that these backstop facilities would soon be launched appears to have bolstered confidence in capital markets, allowing many companies to finance themselves privately even before the facilities were up and running. but importantly, these are, after all, emergency 2 / 4 bis central bankers'speeches facilities, and someday — hopefully soon — the emergency will pass. when that day comes and we are confident the economy is solidly on the road to recovery, we will wind down these lending facilities at such time as we determine the circumstances we confront are no longer unusual or exigent. the federal reserve has played a leading role in the global economic policy response to the coronavirus pandemic. foreign financial institutions borrow and lend in u. s. dollars, and these dollar funding markets seized up when covid - 19 emerged. in globally integrated financial markets such as ours, these strains in dollar funding markets outside the united states affect the flow of credit to u. s. households and businesses. as such, during the week of march 15, the federal reserve coordinated with five foreign central banks to enhance its standing dollar liquidity swap lines. 4 in addition, temporary swap lines were reestablished with the nine central banks that had temporary agreements during the global financial crisis. 5 moreover, to support dollar liquidity to a broad range of countries, the federal reserve announced a new program on march 31, the temporary fima ( foreign and international monetary authorities ) repo facility. under this facility, fima account

and the cooling of various measures of resource utilization as a signal that perhaps the official population estimates were understated to the downside. starting at the end of 2023, i asked, what if substantial increases in the labor force due to the arrival of workers from other countries had not yet been picked up in census estimates? we had seen something similar before. in the late 1990s, official measures of the population were substantially revised up due to mismeasured immigration. during this period, establishment and household counts of workers also significantly diverged. and a third puzzle, with inflation, also warrants attention. inflation had steadily progressed toward the fomc's target during 2023, perhaps faster than some economists expected. the personal consumption expenditures ( pce ) price index eased from a peak of 7. 2 percent in june 2022 to about 3 percent at the end of 2023, measured on a 12 - month basis. when excluding volatile food and energy prices, core inflation similarly eased from a peak of 5. 6 percent in february 2022 to 3 percent at the end of last year. wage growth measures were consistent with inflation declining. 2 / 6 bis - central bankers'speeches economic developments this year at the turn of the new year, new data and other economic developments appeared to cloud the picture further. an uptick in consumer spending and overall economic activity in the fourth quarter of 2023 as well as a stretch of above - trend hiring gave a signal of unexpected strength to start the year. adding to the puzzling figures, core inflation rose 0. 5 percent in january, a notable acceleration from an average monthly increase of 0. 15 percent in the previous quarter. stronger - than - expected economic activity, faster hiring, and a reacceleration of prices gave some economists pause : was this a temporary acceleration, or a more sustained reheating of the economy? i viewed it as likely temporary, as it turned out to be. my view has always been that progress in the fight against inflation has to be judged from trends, not from a data release or two. i also anticipated that the process of bringing down inflation was likely to be sometimes bumpy. however, i viewed the elevated inflation readings as partly stemming from seasonal and one - off factors not fully accounted for in the data. in addition, price changes in some categories are difficult to measure, as i have described in previous speeches. 3 that is particularly true for certain services categories for which direct sources of prices are