The minutes of the 21 September meeting showed that US central bank officials were prepared to ease monetary policy ‘before long’, focussing on purchases of Treasury securities and increasing inflation expectations as a means of adding stimulus to the flagging US economy.

 For the first time, the Fed said that it was considering targeting a path for the level of nominal GDP as a means of increasing price expectations. The minutes also reflected a low level of dissent on the committee, noting that some officials said that ‘additional accommodation would be warranted only if the outlook worsened and the odds of deflation increased materially’.

Thomas Hoenig, the Kansas Fed president, warned against QE, arguing that it would not help drive an economic recovery, as it would not prompt new investment or increased consumption. The European currency was lifted further by comments from ECB council member Axel Weber (also chairman of the German central bank), who said that the ECB should halt its bond-purchase programme, removing a key lifeline for European banks and governments. Weber said that the risk of ‘exiting too late’ was greater than that for ‘exiting too early’, suggesting that the ECB remains sceptical of the benefits of further asset purchases on the US mode