Federal Reserve officials are in broad agreement that US interest rates are unlikely to rise until at least April, according to minutes from their policy meeting in December.
Most people on the 10-strong Federal Open Market Committee agreed with Fed chairwoman Janet Yellen that the move to drop the central bank’s forecast that it would keep interest rates low for a “considerable time” should be seen as a signal that it would not raise rates at its January or March meetings.
The committee said in December that its decision to instead describe the Fed as being “patient” about when to raise rates did not mean that it had brought forward its plans to do so.