The US Federal Reserve has launched an open-ended effort to spark recovery by injecting an additional $40bn into the economy each month through purchases of mortgage-backed securities.
Unlike previous programmes, the Fed’s third round of quantitative easing – nicknamed QE3 – does not have a defined limit and will continue until the labour market improves. Combined with its existing purchases of long-dated Treasuries under its Operation Twist programme, the Fed will be buying assets at a pace of $85bn a month for the rest of the year, a similar pace to its QE2 programme during 2010.
Most markets reacted positively to the Fed announcement, with stocks on Wall Street jumping more than 1 per cent after the announcement.