The objective of the Survey of Market Expectations—which combines the Survey of Primary Dealers and the Survey of Market Participants—is to gain insight into the expectations of primary dealer firms and active investment decision makers as part of the Desk’s market intelligence gathering efforts. Past questions focused on respondents' expectations for the future level of the federal funds rate, the future size of the Federal Reserve's balance sheet, and their forecasts of economic indicators. FOMC participants are not consulted in the formulation of survey questions.
Survey results, with analysis of market prices and other data, are used by Federal Reserve staff in their evaluations of market expectations for the economic outlook, monetary policy, and the financial markets. Occasionally, the Desk asks respondents to update their responses immediately following an FOMC meeting to gauge how expectations have changed in response to new information.
Survey questions are published on the New York Fed's website at the same time they are distributed to respondents, approximately two weeks ahead of each FOMC meeting. Summaries of the results and data are published about three weeks after each FOMC meeting, following the release of the corresponding FOMC meeting minutes.
