Fed's Global Concern Signals Barriers to Next Rate Increase
- FOMC focuses on three risks as it adopts a patient stance
- Risk-management policy focus produces broad consensus
Fed Minutes Confirm World Is a Factor: Flanders
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Federal Reserve officials last month held a vibrant debate that pitted the steady U.S. expansion against heightened global risks and reached a broad agreement on a go-slow strategy that reduced the odds of a rate increase in the first half of the year.
“Several expressed the view that a cautious approach to raising rates would be prudent or noted their concern that raising the target range as soon as April would signal a sense of urgency they did not think appropriate,” according to minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee’s March 15-16 meeting released Wednesday in Washington.