WASHINGTON, Nov 21 (Reuters) – U.S. Federal Reserve officials agreed at their last policy meeting that they would proceed “carefully” and only raise interest rates if progress in controlling inflation faltered, the minutes of the Oct. 31-Nov. 1 gathering showed on Tuesday.
“All participants agreed that the Committee was in a position to proceed carefully,” according to the minutes, which appeared to show support for more rate hikes dissipating within the U.S. central bank’s Federal Open Market Committee, and the baseline shifting to one in which its benchmark overnight interest rate remains steady absent a bad inflation surprise.
Inflation has been slowing – consumer prices did not rise at all on a month-to-month basis in October – and while the Fed has not declared its fight against rapid price increases over, the tenor of the discussion has been shifting towards a focus on how long to keep the policy rate in the current 5.25%-5.50% range.
“Participants noted that further tightening of monetary policy would be appropriate if incoming information indicated that progress toward the Committee’s inflation objective was insufficient,” said the minutes, a statement that indicated it will take an unexpected shock of some degree to prompt a further rate increase.
That sentence did not appear in the minutes of the Fed’s prior meeting in September, when “a majority of participants” still judged that another rate increase would be needed in a tightening cycle that has pushed the policy…
