Fed: Economic activity remains well below pre-pandemic levels

"Participants agreed that the path of the economy would depend on the course of the virus and that the ongoing public health crisis would continue to weigh on economic activity, employment, and inflation in the near term and posed considerable risks to the economic outlook over the medium term," policymakers noted in the minutes.
Meanwhile, according to the minutes, a "number of participants" suggested a gradual tapering of the Fed's asset purchase program could begin and "the process thereafter could generally follow a sequence similar to the one implemented during the large-scale purchase program in 2013 and 2014" once enough progress has been made.