Literally, in English "tapering" means "tapering, tapering", but in the summer of 2013 this word entered the financial and economic language to indicate the possible downsizing of the securities purchase plan (quantitative easing) put in place by the Federal Reserve, the US central bank.
In May 2013, the Governor of the Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke announced the bank’s intention to start the process of exiting the QE plan in the short term by starting to reduce the purchases (tapering) which currently (September 2013) correspond to $ 85 billion per month.
To find out more, we recommend reading our guide on Tapering: What is tapering?
