Historically, the Fed chair has presented the Fed's economic forecasts to Congress twice a year with the Federal Reserve's semi-annual monetary policy report to Congress. Within the extensive report that is compiled, the Fed includes forecasts for key indicators such as GDP (real & nominal), the PCE price index (because it is preferred to the CPI), and the civilian unemployment rate. Fed district presidents and governors each provide their own forecasts which are compiled to form a consensus – or central tendency. In November 2007, the Federal Reserve changed its policy of how frequently and when it would release its forecasts. The Fed now releases economic projections four times a year (every other FOMC meeting). When the increased frequency of forecasts was first introduced, projections made by members of the Board of Governors and Federal Reserve Bank presidents were published with the minutes of the FOMC meetings scheduled for January, April, June, and October. The Fed changed the timing of the forecasts in 2012 to be on a more quarterly pattern with forecasts released after FOMC meetings in the third month of a quarter.

 

When the Fed began to have post-FOMC press conferences held by the chair in April 2011, the forecasts began to be released the afternoon of those FOMC statements. With the greater frequency of these forecasts, they have become more valuable to the markets in terms of providing more timely hints on whether the Fed is likely to make a policy change in the near term. "Fed Speak" has gotten even more attention as Fed officials can now reference their own individual views on whether the economy is tracking the latest forecast or not. Fed forecasts became even more valuable with the January 2012 FOMC when the Fed began releasing its forecast for the fed funds rate and for the timing of their next policy rate change.