WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve officials last month debated how high they would need to raise interest rates to meet their economic goals, with some arguing that they may need to lift rates to a level that would modestly restrain growth.
The discussion is revealed in minutes of the Sept. 25-26 meeting. The report shows that a few participants believed that the Fed’s key interest rate would need to “become modestly restrictive for a time” to guard against inflation climbing too high.
However, other officials argued that they would not favor adopting a restrictive policy “in the absence of clear signs of an overheating economy and rising inflation.”
The minutes did not indicate that officials had reached a conclusion, but they did show that all Fed officials favored further gradual rate hikes.
