Central Banks
Fed Minutes Show Several Saw Case for Cutting Rates in July
- ‘Vast majority’ saw a September cut as likely appropriate
- Some saw a risk of more serious labor-market deterioration
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Several Federal Reserve officials acknowledged there was a plausible case for cutting interest rates at their July 30-31 meeting before the central bank’s policy committee voted unanimously to keep them steady.
“Several observed that the recent progress on inflation and increases in the unemployment rate had provided a plausible case for reducing the target range 25 basis points at this meeting or that they could have supported such a decision,” minutes from the meeting, published Wednesday in Washington, said. “The vast majority observed that, if the data continued to come in about as expected, it would likely be appropriate to ease policy at the next meeting.”