In the early morning of February 17, Beijing time, the Federal Reserve released the minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) monetary policy meeting in January. According to the minutes of the meeting, Fed officials said that although they still expected inflation to ease this year, they were ready to accelerate the pace of interest rate hikes if necessary. If inflation cannot fall as expected, it is appropriate for the Federal Open Market Committee to cancel policy easing faster than expected. In terms of reducing the debt purchase process, in view of the high inflationary pressure and the strong labor market, participants believed that the FOMC should complete the net asset purchase plan as soon as possible. Most participants preferred to continue to reduce asset purchases according to the timetable announced in December last year and end bond purchases by early March this year. However, several participants preferred to end the asset purchase program earlier in order to send a stronger signal that the Fed is committed to reducing inflation. In terms of the schedule reduction plan, the minutes of the meeting show that the timing and pace of the Fed's schedule reduction will depend on whether the economy has achieved the goals of full employment and price stability. Shrinkage refers to the direct recovery of the base currency by directly selling the bonds held or stopping the reinvestment of mature bonds, which is equivalent to raising the interest rate in a disguised form. Fed officials believe that it may be appropriate to wait until the current interest rate hike cycle officially opens before starting to shrink the table. It is noteworthy that the US January inflation data released by the US Department of labor on February 10 local time showed that the US CPI rose 7.5% year-on-year in January, the largest year-on-year increase since February 1982. This has also prompted some policymakers to support a larger interest rate increase, that is, 50 basis points. However, the minutes of the meeting showed that the Fed did not imply that it would raise interest rates by 50 basis points in March, and market concerns eased. Ping An Securities Research Report believes that from the perspective of market traders, the minutes of the meeting in January can be described as "ordinary", which is basically consistent with the statement at the previous meeting, that is, it is mentioned that the current round of interest rate increase and table contraction will be faster than the previous round, and the range of table contraction will be relatively large in the future. However, there is no response to several issues concerned by the market, such as whether to increase interest rates by 50 basis points in March. At the same time, the research report believes that the impact of the Fed's policy on China's policy is relatively limited. "In view of the increasing inflationary pressure in the United States, the Federal Reserve will accelerate the tightening of monetary policy. Against the background of the deviation of monetary policy between China and the United States, the first quarter will become an important operation window period of China's monetary policy." Fan Ruoying, a researcher at the Bank of China Research Institute, told the Securities Daily that China's monetary policy needs to continue to move forward and accurately to stabilize the economic market. Luo Zhiheng, chief economist of YueKai securities and President of the Research Institute, said in an interview with the Securities Daily that although the tightening expectation of the United States is getting stronger and stronger, China's monetary policy adheres to the principle of "stabilizing the word and focusing on me". At present, China's economic development is facing triple pressures of shrinking demand, supply shock and weakening expectations. Monetary policy will help stabilize growth. In the first quarter, domestic monetary policy easing may further increase. (Xinhua News Agency)