First Federal Open Market Committee Post-Meeting Press Conference To Be Held Wednesday

In March, the Federal Reserve announced that Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke would start holding press conferences after four of its Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meetings a year. The first of this year's meetings with a press conference will be held Wednesday.

The purpose of the new press conferences is to provide additional context for the Fed's policy decisions and to allow for a question and answer session with the press.

It's anticipated that the usual FOMC post-meeting statement will be released at 11:30am CDT on Wednesday at the conclusion of this week's two-day meeting. The new Federal Reserve chairman press conferences will be held at 1:15 pm CDT on this day.

Press conferences will be held after each of the two-day FOMC meetings. In 2011, these press briefings will be held on dates including April 27, June 22, and Nov. 2 and available online (live) on the Federal Reserve's website.