Several Federal Reserve policymakers were prepared to announce a start date for the US central bank’s unwind of its crisis-era economic stimulus last month but they were outnumbered by those who preferred to wait.
Minutes of the Fed’s July rate-setting meeting revealed differences of opinion on when to begin the shrinking of the Fed’s balance sheet, together with growing concern among some policymakers over low inflation, which bolsters the case against quick tightening.
Fed chair Janet Yellen has spent the year preparing for the landmark moment when the Fed puts its quantitative easing programme into reverse and the minutes said “several participants were prepared to announce a starting date for the [unwind] program at the current meeting”.