US Federal Reserve September meeting minutes: Members worried about low inflation
The US Federal Reserve held off raising interest rates in September due to concerns about low inflation.
The minutes from the meeting on September 16 and 17 released today showed some Fed officials said they weren't any more confident that inflation would return to the target of two per cent in the next two years.
This was due to "recent global economic and financial developments" which had slightly restrained "the economic outlook and placed further downward pressure on inflation in the near term".
The minutes also suggested most members of the Federal Open Market Committee still expect interest rates to rise before the end of the year.
"Most members agreed that their confidence that inflation would move to the committee's inflation objective would increase if, as expected, economic activity continued to expand at a moderate rate and labour conditions improved further," the minutes said.
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"Many expected those conditions to be met later this year although several members were concerned about downside risks to the outlook for real activity and inflation."
Last month, in a decision that could've gone either way, the Fed decided against raising short-term interest rates for the first time in nine years.
It comes as economic policymakers worldwide are becoming increasingly concerned about global growth, as the emerging markets and China appear to be slowing by more than previously thought. But the minutes showed while Fed officials were unsettled by signs of a global economic slowdown, they didn't think this had "materially altered" the outlook for the economy.