Federal Reserve governors and regional bank presidents, in Washington for a monetary policy meeting, are wrestling with the question of the “taper” — whether to scale back the open-ended $85 billion monthly bond program they initiated last December.

Chairman Ben Bernanke at the end of 2012 set out a three-part test for ending the asset purchases, which he said were merely intended to create “some near-term momentum in the economy”: The Fed would reduce the purchases when it saw “increasing growth that’s picking up over time…; continuing gains in the labor market; and inflation moving back towards” the Fed’s 2 percent objective.