US central bankers are sharply divided over whether to increase interest rates again this year amid persistently weak inflation, but many still favor a hike, according to minutes released Wednesday.
Policymakers also said the economic damage from back-to-back hurricanes since August would likely be only temporary, according to a record of the Fed’s most recent meeting last month.
The continuing disagreements among members of the Federal Reserve could leave investors and market watchers guessing about the path of US monetary policy in the waning months of the year.
The Federal Open Committee, the Fed panel which sets US monetary policy, has twice raised rates so far in 2017 despite the fact that inflation has remained tame in the face of steady job creation and falling unemployment.
Economists have been baffled by the circumstances and Fed members have disagreed since 2016 on the near-term threat that prices will rise and that the economy will overheat.
-AFP
Add new comment