Fed members support keeping rates at restrictive levels for some time: Fed minutes
Investing.com – Federal Reserve policymakers were in support of keeping rates at restrictive levels for «some time» until inflation is clearly on a downward path, though stopped short of suggesting rate cuts were on the horizon anytime soon, according to the minutes of the Federal Reserve’s Oct. 31-Nov. 1 meeting released Tuesday.
«All participants judged that it would be appropriate for policy to remain at a restrictive stance for some time until inflation is clearly moving down sustainably toward the Committee's objective,» the minutes showed.
At the conclusion of its previous meeting on Nov. 1, the Federal Open Market Committee, or FOMC, kept its benchmark rate in a range of 5.25% to 5.5%.
It was the third time in a row the central bank decided to stand pat on rates as signs of slowing inflation paved the way for the central bank to continue its careful approach to monetary policy.
The consumer price index for October fell to an annualized rate of 3.2% from 3.7% in the prior month that some economists estimate will support further slowing in the core personal consumption expenditures price index, or core PCE, closely watched by the Fed as a more accurate measure of inflation.
“Incorporating inputs from CPI, we forecast core PCE inflation increased 0.17% in October vs. 0.30% in September,” Morgan Stanley said in a recent note, ahead of the next PCE data slated for Nov. 30. Core services ex housing translation points to 0.15%M in October vs. 0.42%M prior,” it added.
A slowing in the economy, or a period of «below-potential growth in real GDP and some further softening in labor market conditions,» the minutes showed, would likely be needed to «reduce inflation pressures sufficiently to return inflation to 2
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