Federal Reserve policymakers discussed maintaining the Fed’s policy rate at 1.5 to 1.75 per cent “for a time” at their meeting at the end of January, to support both a recovery in business investment and a labour market with room still left to improve.
Risks to the outlook were “somewhat more favourable” since their last meeting, in December, they also agreed. According to the minutes of the January meeting, released on Wednesday, some even recommended letting inflation rise above the Fed’s target rate of 2 per cent “for a period,” to emphasise that they were just as willing to overshoot that target as undershoot it.
“Participants discussed how maintaining the current policy stance for a time could be helpful in supporting US economic activity and employment in the face of global developments that have been weighing on spending decisions,” the minutes read.