Most economists see U.S. Fed scaling back bond buys by year-end: Reuters Poll

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Most economists expect the U.S. Federal Reserve to scale back the size of its bond purchases, intended to prop up the economy, by the end of the year, and a sizeable number expect reduced buying as early as September, according to a Reuters poll.

Of 48 economists who answered a poll question on Friday about when they expected the Fed to cut back on the size of its debt purchases, 42 said they expected this by the end of 2013. Of those, 21 expect reduced purchases to be announced during the third quarter of the year, with 19 specifying the Fed's September policy meeting.

The Fed is currently buying $85 billion per month of Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities in an effort to hold interest rates at very low levels and spur employment growth. The central bank has said the duration of the program is open-ended.

Of 49 economists who responded to a question about when the Fed would completely halt bond purchases, 42 said they expect this by mid-2014. The remaining 7 economists expect the program to end in the second half of 2014 or the first half of 2015.

The median of forecasts from 34 economists was for the Fed to purchase a total of $1.225 trillion of Treasuries in the latest round of quantitative easing, known as QE3.

The poll was conducted on Friday after government data showing U.S. employers added 175,000 jobs last month, which was more than expected, although the unemployment rate in May ticked up to 7.6 percent from 7.5 percent in April.

Of 50 economists polled, 30 said they expect the U.S. unemployment rate to fall to the Fed's target of 6.5 percent in 2015, while 20 forecast unemployment to dip to that level in 2014.

(Reporting by Chris Reese; Additional reporting by Sarmista Sen and Rahul Karunakar in Bangalore and Pam Niimi in New York; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)