Fed Wants ‘Flexibility’ on Rates as Inflation Remains Key Focus, Minutes Show

Fed Wants ‘Flexibility’ on Rates as Inflation Remains Key Focus, Minutes Show
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell departs after facing reporters at a news conference following a two-day meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) in Washington on June 15, 2022. Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters
Reuters
Updated:

WASHINGTON—All officials at the Federal Reserve’s Dec. 13–14 policy meeting agreed the U.S. central bank should slow the pace of its aggressive interest rate increases, allowing them to continue increasing the cost of credit to control inflation but in a gradual way meant to limit the risks to economic growth.

The minutes of the meeting, which were released on Wednesday, showed policymakers still focused on controlling the pace of price increases that threatened to run hotter than anticipated, and worried about any “misperception” in financial markets that their commitment to fighting inflation was flagging.