The minutes of the Fed's Jan. 29-30 meeting released Wednesday show that policymakers now believe there is little risk in keeping interest rates unchanged to assess the impact of the global economic slowdown and the Fed's interest rate hike so far.
"Many participants said it was unclear what adjustments might be appropriate to the target range of the federal funds rate later this year," the minutes said.
However, although "many" participants believed that it was only necessary to raise interest rates when inflation unexpectedly surged, "several other participants said that if the economy developed as expected, they thought it would be appropriate to raise the target range of the federal funds rate later this year."
Last month, the Federal Reserve suspended a three-year interest rate hike and said it would be patient before adjusting its current target range of short-term interest rates of 2.25% to 2.5%, which caught the market by surprise.
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