Overall, the minutes showed that Federal Reserve officials remained determined to keep rates high to quell inflation and have taken little comfort from inflation’s decline from a peak of 9.1% in June to 7.1% in November.
Consistent with a sharp slowdown, Fed officials projected that the economy will barely grow next year, expanding just 0.5%, less than half the forecast it had made in September.
The six rate hikes the Fed has already imposed this year have raised its key short-term rate to a range of 3.75% to 4%, its highest level in 15 years.
In a recent speech, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell pointed to the shortfall of workers and the resulting rise in average pay as the primary remaining driver of the price spikes that continue to grip the economy.
The Federal Reserve will push rates higher than previously expected and keep them there for an extended period, Chair Jerome Powell said Wednesday, in remarks likely intended to underscore the Fed’s single-minded focus on combating stubborn inflation.
Chair Jerome H. Powell is expected to this week cement expectations that the Federal Reserve will slow its pace of interest-rate increases next month, while reminding Americans that its fight against inflation will run into 2023.
Comments by James Bullard raised the prospect that the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes will make borrowing by consumers and businesses even costlier and further heighten the risk of recession.
Economists largely stuck to their forecasts that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates to 5% by March and hold them there for most of 2023, even after inflation slowed last month by more than forecast.
Michael Barr, the Fed’s vice chair for supervision, said Congress should pass legislation that would impose regulation on crypto currencies in the wake of the swift collapse last week of FTX, a leading crypto exchange.
Speaking at an IBJ economic forecast event Monday, a Fifth Third Bank economist said the chance of heading into another recession is “literally a toss-up, a coin flip.”
The Federal Reserve on Wednesday raised its key short-term interest rate to a range of 3.75% to 4%, its highest level in 15 years.
Looming over the Federal Reserve meeting that ends Wednesday is a question of intense interest: Just how high will the Fed’s inflation-fighters raise interest rates—and might they slow their rate hikes as soon as next month?
U.S. job openings rose unexpectedly in September, suggesting that the American labor market is not cooling as fast as the inflation fighters at the Federal Reserve hoped.
A measure of inflation that is closely monitored by the Federal Reserve remained painfully high last month, the latest sign that prices for most goods and services in the United States are still rising steadily.
The National Association of Realtors said Thursday that sales of previously occupied U.S. homes fell in September for the eighth month in a row.
America’s employers slowed their hiring in September but still added a solid number of jobs, likely keeping the Federal Reserve on pace to keep raising interest rates aggressively to fight persistently high inflation.
Comments by Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, Neel Kashkari and Raphael Bostic suggest the Federal Reserve is unlikely to slow its campaign against inflation anytime soon.
The Federal Reserve will have to keep boosting its benchmark interest rate to a point that raises unemployment and gets inflation down from unusually high levels, two officials said in separate remarks Monday.
The Federal Reserve delivered its bluntest reckoning Wednesday of what it will take to finally tame painfully high inflation: Slower growth, higher unemployment and potentially a recession.
The Federal Reserve boosted its benchmark short-term rate, which affects many consumer and business loans, to a range of 3% to 3.25%, the highest level since early 2008.
