WASHINGTON — Federal Reserve officials at their most recent meeting indicated that there are signs inflation is coming down, but not enough to counter the need for more interest rate increases, meeting minutes released Wednesday showed.
While the Jan. 31-Feb. 1 meeting concluded with a smaller rate hike than most of those implemented since early 2022, officials stressed that their concern over inflation is high.
Inflation “remained well above” the Fed’s 2% target, the minutes stated. That came with labor markets that “remained very tight, contributing to continuing upward pressures on wages and prices.”
Consequently, the Fed approved a 0.25 percentage point rate increase that was the smallest hike since the first of this tightening cycle in March 2022. The move brought the fed funds rate to a target range of 4.5%-4.75%. But the minutes said that the reduced pace came with a high level of concern that inflation was still a threat.
“Participants noted that inflation data received over the past three months showed a welcome reduction in the monthly pace of price increases but stressed that substantially more evidence of progress across a broader range of prices would be required to be confident that inflation was on a sustained downward path,” the minutes said.
The summary repeated that members believe “ongoing” rate hikes will be necessary.
Stocks fell following the release of the minutes while Treasury yields shed most of their losses from earlier in the session.
Though the quarter-point hike received unanimous approval, the minutes noted that not everyone was on board.
A “few” members said they wanted a half-point, or 50 basis point, increase that would show even greater resolve to get inflation down. A basis point is equal to 0.01%.
Since the meeting, regional Presidents James Bullard of St. Louis and Loretta Mester of Cleveland have said they were among the group that wanted the more aggressive move. The minutes, however did not elaborate on how many a “few” were…
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